Quiz & Closed Form

Contemporary poets spend 9/10th of their time writing in free verse. They often have an informal tone, as if your best friend is speaking directly to you. This informality is fine, particularly if we want poetry for the masses (poetry for everyone to enjoy). But what happens when you want a little structure to your art?

Welcome to closed form! Some of these may be familiar to you, as you are generally introduced to them in elementary school. They are not elementary in the least, though--being rather difficult to master. They are very easy to screw up.

Samples of Verse (closed form):

The Stanza (break your ideas into parts, like paragraphs. There are many types:)

• Tercet (Terza Rima) – 3 line stanza (terza rima, rhyming aba)
• Quatrain – 4 line stanza (most common form of stanza)
• Quintain – 5 line stanza
• Sestet – 6 line stanza
• Chaucerian (used by Chaucer) – 7 line stanza, rhyming ababbcc
• Ottava Rima – 8 line stanza, rhyming abababcc
• Spenserian (used by Spenser)—8 iambic pentameter lines, followed by a hexameter line, rhyming ababbcbcc

Closed Form Verse: Verse can be lyric (20 lines or less usually), or narrative (more than 20 lines, etc.) They can even be both!:

• The Villanelle (Lyric, narrative) (5 tercets rhyming ABA, followed by 1 quatrain, ABAA)
• The Sestina (Lyric, narrative) (6 sestets & a tercet)
• The Pantoum (Lyric, narrative) (unspecified # of quatrains (ABAB), beginning and ending with same line)
• The Sonnet (Lyric, dramatic) 14 iambic pentameter lines (3 quatrains and a couplet)
• Petrarchan (abba abba cde cde (or cd cd cd))
• Shakespearean (abab cdcd efef gg)
• Spencerian (abab bcbc cdcd ee)
• The Ballad (Narrative) Quatrain stanzas, rhyming ABAB or ABCB
• The Heroic Couplet (Epic, narrative, dramatic) couplet in iambic pentameter or tetrameter
• Epistle (a “letter” in heroic verse)
• Epigram (an aphorism, usually written in couplets)
• Blank Verse (Epic, narrative, dramatic) unrhymed iambic lines
• Limerick (Narrative) 5 line poem, rhyming aabba – often sexual or ‘rude’ subject matter
• Haiku (Lyric) 3 line poem, fewer than 17 syllables; usually about nature
• Triolet (Lyric) Octave with 2 rhymes; first line repeated, second line repeated as eighth
• The Rondel (Lyric) 13 lines in 3 stanzas with 2 rhymes, first 2 lines form refrain at end of 2 & 3 stanza

 LAB: Try one, two, eight, sixteen, a million of these forms. Write at least one closed form poem.