1. Forms of Traditional
Poetry
Taken from Write Source 2000
and Stories in Verse

2. Poetry has been around for centuries,
beginning with bards and messengers
who used poetry to pass along news,
songs, and stories as they traveled from
town to town. Today, we find poetry in
songs, greeting cards, posters, gift books,
and a variety of other places.

3. There are several forms of poetry that
have existed for centuries. Each of these
forms has a specific purpose and a strict
set of rules. You are going to be
examining seven of these traditional
forms.

4. Ballad
 A poem which tells a story (usually about very moving
events)
 Usually written in four-line stanzas, or quatrains
 Often the first and third lines will have eight syllables and
the second and fourth lines will have six syllables
 There are several possible rhyme schemes for a quatrain,
but generally the entire poem will follow the same rhyme
scheme
 Use of repetition and refrain*
 Tragic ending
*Note: a refrain is a line or stanza repeated at regular intervals throughout the poem

5. Ballad Example
 The first stanza of the “Ballad of Birmingham”
 Notice how it follows the requirements of a ballad
Mother dear, may I go downtown
Instead of out to play,
And march the streets of Birmingham
In a Freedom March today?
Note: This ballad tells the story of the tragedy of a civil rights protest in the 1960s.

6. Blank Verse
 Unrhymed poetry with meter*
 Each line is 10 syllables in length (although
you can fudge a little)
*Meter is a pattern of accented and unaccented syllables. I don’t
expect you to use meter in your poems. It’s purely optional! 

7. Blank Verse Example
 The first three lines of the “Birches”
 Notice how it follows the requirements of
blank verse
When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.

8. Epic
 A long story poem which describes the
adventures of a hero (usually of supernatural
origin, like a mythological god)
 Events in the poem are of national or
international importance
 Supernatural characters
 Many long speeches in the poem given by
characters

9. Epic Example
 The beginning of The Odyssey by Homer
Tell me, o muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide
after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit,
and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was
acquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save his
own life and bring his men safely home; but do what he might he could
not save his men, for they perished through their own sheer folly in
eating the cattle of the Sun-god Hyperion; so the god prevented them
from ever reaching home. Tell me, too, about all these things, O
daughter of Jove, from whatsoever source you may know them.

10. Cinquain
 Five lines in length
 There are syllable cinquain poems and word
cinquain poems

11. Syllable Cinquain
 Line 1: Title 2 syllables
 Line 2: Description of title 4 syllables
 Line 3: Action about the title 6 syllables
 Line 4: Feeling about the title 8 syllables
 Line 5: Synonym for the title 2 syllables

12. Word Cinquain
 Line 1: Title 1 word
 Line 2: Description of title 2 words
 Line 3: Action about the title 3 words
 Line 4: Feeling about the title 4 words
 Line 5: Synonym for the title 1 word

13. Syllable Cinquain Example
First Visit to the Ocean
She's lost
inside her laugh
before the rising tide
that reaches out to tickle her
bare toes.
- Jeanne Cassler

14. Free Verse
 Poetry that does not require meter or rhyme
scheme

15. Free Verse Example
 Not every free verse poem is this short. Both
individual lines and the entire poem itself can be
longer.
Fog
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
- Carl Sandburg

16. Limerick
 A humorous verse
 Five lines
 Lines one, two, and five rhyme
 Lines three and four rhyme
 Lines one, two, and five have the same number
of syllables (usually nine or ten)
 Lines three and four have the same number of
syllables (usually four or five)

17. Limerick Example
 Notice the rhythm of the poem
There once was a lady from Nantucket
Who lived her whole life in a bucket.
Her pleasures unknown,
Were completely thrown,
When in a mudhole her bucket got stuckit.

18. A Limerick for First Period ’05-‘06
At M.I.S. there’s a TAG L.A. class
With such technology issues, alas.
They can’t turn things on;
(less brains and more brawn?)
It’s a wonder that they can all pass! 
He, he! Just teasing – you know I love you.

19. Lyric
 A short poem
 The purpose is to express personal feeling

20. Lyric Example
 The first five lines of the “My Heart Leaps Up
When I Behold”
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky;
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old.
- William Wordsworth