Chapter 4: Some of the Different Types of Poems
The Japanese have inspired much in the way of artistic expression, and poetry is no exception to their influence. They are the creators of tanka and haiku.
Tanka is a poem of one stanza consisting of five sentences or lines. The first and third lines have five syllables. The second, fourth, and fifth lines have seven syllables each.
Haiku is a poem with three lines. Purists, that is, people who desire to be true to the purest form of an idea or method, insist on writing only about things in nature. Others tend to write about any given topic, conforming only to the three lines and the syllable pattern. Haiku is challenging to write because of the syllable pattern which specifies lines one and three have five syllables while line two have seven syllables.
French Influence
The French also have a great deal of influence in the arts, so much so that the names of the following types of poems are French.
Quatrains have four lines in each stanza. Cinquains have five lines per stanza. Both tend to rhyme, even if only on every other line.
Other Influences
Hebrew poetry is based on how ideas are expressed. Parallelism is expressing the same idea in two different ways in one verse. This is common in Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon, all found in the Bible.
Middle Eastern poetry from Arab cultures like Persia and Syria have their own flair as well, known for its deep meanings in declarations of love.
The same can be said of poetry in India, where things are said with subtlety.
Incidentally, many eastern forms of poetry also incorporate fine penmanship as part of their ideology. It literally includes art through the handwriting of the author.
Spoken Word Poetry
Spoken-word poetry may be something new to you. On paper, it looks like standard poetry. However, the interesting thing about spoken-word is that it tends to sound like rap. It is all about the verbal delivery of the poem.
For that to occur successfully, the poet must memorize the words. It can be visually exciting and entertaining. Some spoken-word artists, as they are frequently called, never write their poems down. That means that they may have memorized a great number of poems. They also like to use monikers or pen names in much the same way rap artists do. It is truly amazing to hear these poems recited, sometimes years after they were written.
Other Types Of Poems
A limerick is a rhyming poem with a given meter or rhythm. Every single limerick follows this pattern regardless of the topic. It is like using the same music for every song even though the lyrics change. Limericks tell a story or subtly expose a moral.
Blank verse does not rhyme yet has a set rhythm or meter based on the number five.
Free verse (open verse) has no rhythm or rhyme. Even punctuation is not a requirement here. This type of poem is the best for your poetry. It gives you the most freedom and the maximum liberty to be creative and expressive.
Lyric poems are, or resemble, songs. They maintain a rhythm that sounds like something that would be sung. Technically, a song is a poem set to music and can be accomplished with any type of poem. Many songs were simply poems first, made famous even in recent times by a poet/songwriter who performed it.
Epic poems read like stories. They are long and tend to be historical. Others are briefer descriptions of things that could be interpreted more than one way, yet they are long for poems.
This is in no way a complete list. It is just a sample to give you some idea of what you can do and what has been done.
Recap
There are many formats for poems. Tanka, haiku, free verse or open verse, lyric, limerick, and epic are some of those. Others are more cultural in nature like quatrains, cinquains, parallelism, or spoken-word. Free verse gives you the most liberation with your creativity.
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