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Styles Of PoetryProducts Relating to 'Styles Of Poetry'

Styles of poetry

Poetry is a message from the soul of the poet. This message is shared with the reader and will either resonate on an emotional or intellectual level. There are many styles of poetry and in this article, we will highlight them for you.

1. Ballad

• The first of these styles of poetry is called a ballad. This a short story or event. Also called popular ballads, ballads were passed orally down through the generations. Folk ballads are one stanza, literary ballads are more formal and can have several stanzas.

• Structure:Generally one stanza with four lines (quatrain) and with the second and forth line rhyming.

2. Sonnet

• The sonnet is generally believed to orignate from medieval songs. Well known poets like Shakespeare wrote primarily in sonnets during Elizabethan times. This style of poetry faded for a while until the romantic era poets, like Keat and Wordsworth brought them back.

Structure: The structure is fourteen lines in Iambic Pentameter with a static rhyme scheme. There are generally three types within this structure.

• Italian: (Petrarchan) Rhymes abbaabbacdecde using an octave and sestet.

• Elizabethan: (Shakesperean) Three quatrains and a couplet.

• Spenserian: Rhymes abab cdcd ee

3. Triolet

• Also known as popular ballads in the styles of poetry is another, called the Triolet. These songs usually tell a story and include impacting repetition without going into great detail. Folk ballads have one stanza while literary ballads are more formal and have several stanzas.

• Structure:Triolets have eight lines with the first and fourth repeating. The second couplet repeats at the end. abaaabab

4. Haiku

• In our continuation with styles of poetry , we now come to the Haiku, which is of Japanese origin.It is a short poem about nature, either human or the nature around us.

• Structure: The Haiku has three lines with uneven syllables, with lines one, two and three having five, seven and five syllables respectively. This form of poetry is unrhymed.

5. Senryu

• Another in these styles of poetry is the Senryu. It is like the Haiku in structure and form, but the Senryu is about human weaknesses.

• Structure: The Senryu is like the Haiku in structure with three lines and lines one, two and three having five, seven and five syllables. The Senryu is unrhymed.

6. Tanka

• The last one we will discuss today in our styles of poetry is the Tanka. This style of poetry is Japanese in origin an is one that reflects nature.

• Structure: The structure of the Tanka is five lines with thirty one syllables. It is lyrical in tone and not strict to the number of stanzas or syllables per line.

Thank you for your time and I do trust you will try your hand at writing in some of the wonderful styles of poetry. Listen to the song of your soul. Get out a piece of paper or your computer. Hear the impressions, feel the emotions running past.

Be sure to record all your thoughts and feelings. Create a journal or some other place to keep your writings. Who knows? One day we may be discussing your great works right here among these styles of poetry !

Article Published: Saturday 5th May 2007