Types of Poems

1. Types of Poems By: Ms. Welty

2. Ballad A poem that tells a story similar to a folk tale or legend and often has a repeated refrain. Check it out! Edgar Allen Poe�s poem �The Raven� is an example of a Ballad. He uses, �Quoth the raven: �Nevermore!�

3. Blank Verse (a.k.a. Free Verse) Poetry that doesn�t rhyme but has a set meter and rhythm. Check it out! The major achievements in English blank verse were made by William Shakespeare, who wrote much of the content of his plays in unrhymed iambic pentameter.

4. Epic A long, serious poem that tells the story of a heroic figure. Check it out! The ancient Greeks tended to write a lot of these, as exemplified by Homer, who wrote not one, but two epics: The Odyssey and The Illiad.

5. Haiku A Japanese poem composed of 3 unrhymed lines of first 5, then 7, and then 5 syllables, that often reflect on some aspect of nature. Check it out! This elaborate (5) example of haiku is (7) not exactly great (5)

6. Limerick A light, humorous poem of 5 lines with the rhyme scheme of AABBA. Check it out!

7. Lyric A poem that expresses your thoughts and feelings and may resemble a song in form of style. Check it out! The first Lyric ever written was the �Song of Solemn.�

8. Ode A lyric poem that�s serious and thoughtful in tone and has a very precise, formal structure. Check it out! Of course, one can mock this style by doing a poem entitled, say �An Ode to My Ice Cream Sandwich,� detailing why the ice cream sandwich is seriously the best treat on a hot summer�s day.

9. Quatrain A stanza or poem of exactly four lines Check it out!

10. Sonnet A lyric poem that�s 14 lines long. Sonnet is Provencal word for Little song. Check it out! Once again Shakespeare was famous for these. Many of his works were done in this way.