Poetic Form

Stanza Patterns
The Rhyming Couplet (some call it heroic)	two-line stanza--rhyming aa
The Tercet	three-line stanza
The Quatrain	four-line stanza
ballad	rhyming abcb
heroic	rhyming abab
rhyme enclosure	abba
triple	aaba
double couplet	aabb
The Quintain	five-line stanza
The Sextain (sestet)	six-line stanza
Chaucerian Stanza (Rhyme Royal)	seven-line stanza--rhyming ababbcc
Ottava Rima (octave or octet)	eight-line stanza--rhyming abababcc
The Spenserian Stanza	eight iambic pentameter lines followed by a single hexameter line--rhyming ababbcbcc
The Fourteener	iambic heptameters, as many as it takes
Fixed Forms English
The Sonnet	fourteen iambic pentameter lines
Petrarchan (Italian)	abba abba cde cde (or cd cd cd)
Shakespearean (English)	abab cdcd efef gg
Spenserian	abab bcbc cdcd ee
Fixed Forms French
The Villanelle	five tercets rhyming aba followed by a quatrain of abaa
The Triolet	octave with but two rhymes first line repeated twice second line repeated as the eighth
The Rondeau	fifteen lines in three stanzas with two rhymes last lines of stanzas 2 and 3 taken from the first line
The Rondel (roundel)	thirteen lines in three stanzas with two rhymes first two lines form refrain at end of stanzas 2 and 3
The Ballade	three stanzas of eight or ten lines plus a concluding envoy three or four rhymes, but rhyme word may be repeated
The Sestina	six sestets + a tercet for the envoy
Content Forms
Lyric	a short poem with unity of thought, feeling, or situation: a song
Ode	a poem dignified in subject, feeling, and style, frequently addressed to a person
Elegy	a poem lamenting the death of an individual or mourning the mutability of life
Pastoral	a poem concerning rural life such as the shepherd lives; a nature poem
Epic	long narrative poem in heroic verse celebrating great themes and national identity
Ballad	narrative poem concerned with some event of history or incident of life - see ballad stanza
Metrical Romance	narrative poem celebrating love, war, and religion
Satire	verse meant to correct abuses in morals and manners through ridicule, gentle or vicious
Dialog Poem (medieval pastourelle)	poem of dialog between a man and a woman involving quarrel and reconciliation
Dramatic Monolog	a poem where the speaker is addressing someone who does not reply
Epistle	a letter, usually in heroic verse
Epigram	an aphorism, usually in couplets
Other Forms
Haiku	three lines with five, seven, and five syllables originally a poem of simple nature images
Limerick	five-line poem rhyming aabba three feet in first, second, and last line two feet in the third and fourth
Form in Free Verse
Since the establishment of free verse created by Whitman's Leaves of Grass an enormous variety of rhythms and forms have been explored. Each poem has the possibility of its own irregular music and its own unusual shape and form. It would be impossible to catalog or define all such forms, but poets often find one or more that they repeat because they fit comfortably with their voices and the stretches of their minds.