Types of Poetry: Free Verse

DEFINITION: A poem that doesn't contain a particular rhythm and can possibly break poetry rules

EXAMPLE:

Dance with me.

We'll invent a Finnish tango

and wow all the cool people

at the Copacabana, or

slide a lunar waltz under disco starlight with every

eye watching you.

A sexual Pasa Doblé

in peak hour Times Square traffic

showing New York commuters what

quick step really means as

they funeral march home.

Let's cut a jive in five

eight time to Garth Brooks on

some freaky western drug trip and

hear the applause as

you sashay a foxtrot on

their mundane front lawns.

Take my lead and

we can turn the entire bloody

world

                                                into our dance floor.

SIGNIFICANCE: I personally think free verse is the most less complicated way to write poetry since in free verse poetry, you are able to break poetry rules as long as you realize you are breaking them. Basically, you can just throw any words you want into the poem.

Types of Poetry: Elegy

DEFINITION: A poem especially written for the death of someone

EXAMPLE:   life after death is silent
as in a cemetery

mourners came and went
dirge and elegy are gone

death does not hear
even a silent prayer

death does not see
even the dark underground

when death does speak
you do not hear

when death does smile
you do not see

a song of those who are no more
cannot be sung

the singer of another world
cannot be seen

life is not a drama
world is not a stage

the theater is empty
in a drunken town 

SIGNIFICANCE:  People who write elegy can express how much they miss and feel about the loss of someone special to them.

Types of Poetry: Ode

DEFINITION: A long poem that celebrates an idea or a person

EXAMPLE: An Ode to Christmas by Bronti Phillips

  When you see lovely lights
Of greens, reds, and whites
You know it is Christmas Time

When snow falls down from the skies
Soft and thick it lies
You know it is Christmas Time

When you hear Christmas jingles
And your skin begins to tingle
You know it is Christmas Time

An Ode for the scent of pine
An Ode to the dainty decorations that are so divine
An Ode to Christmas Time

When you get rosy cheeks
And children dash with squeals and shrieks
You know it is Christmas Time

When the young and old sit in front of the fire and come together
To get away from the cold weather
You know it is Christmas Time

When you warm up with your sweet heart
Unable to keep apart
You know it is Christmas Time

An Ode to Hot Chocolate with marshmallows
An Ode to the Jolly fellows

An Ode to Santa Claus
An Ode to decking the halls
An Ode to Christmas Time 

SIGNIFICANCE:  Odes are based on what a person has done great or how an idea is great. It shows appreciation to the person or idea through words written in poetic form.

Types of Poetry: Sonnet

DEFINITION: A poem that has 14 lines with rhyming schemes

EXAMPLE: When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,
Thy youth's proud livery so gazed on now,
Will be a tattered weed of small worth held:
Then being asked, where all thy beauty lies,
Where all the treasure of thy lusty days;
To say within thine own deep sunken eyes,
Were an all-eating shame, and thriftless praise.
How much more praise deserved thy beauty's use,
If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine
Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse'
Proving his beauty by succession thine.
This were to be new made when thou art old,
And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold.

SIGNIFICANCE: As I know of, Shakespeare has multiple Sonnet poems. Sonnet has a certain amount of lines, therefeore the poem can't go on forever which can possibly bored readers.

Types of Poetry: Lyric

DEFINITION: A poem where poets express feelings and thoughts

EXAMPLE: I HEAR A SONG BY JOE FAZIO

  In the song of life, all lyrics need a melody.

You are the lyric and you are the melody.
You are the lyric of my heart and of my soul.

The beauty of the rose, speaks a lyric of love.
Love, speaks a lyric of you.

The silent lyric of goodness, echoes from within you.
My heart, speaks the lyric of love...to only you.

Let the words...the lyric...that bind, pass between us.
Let the lyric, of you...of me...be as one.

A million words I can speak of you and the lyrics
would be the same...I love you now. I always will  

SIGNIFICANCE: What is good about lyric poetry is that it contains people's feelings and thoughts. It's not full of stories, but what a person feels.

Types of Poetry: Epic

DEFINITION: A poem that tells a story about a hero or a heroic figure person

EXAMPLE: Now Beowulf bode in the burg of the Scyldings,
leader beloved, and long he ruled
in fame with all folk, since his father had gone
away from the world, till awoke an heir,
haughty Healfdene, who held through life,
sage and sturdy, the Scyldings glad.
Then, one after one, there woke to him,
to the chieftain of clansmen, children four:
Heorogar, then Hrothgar, then Halga brave;
and I heard that -- was -- 's queen,
the Heathoscylfing's helpmate dear.

MORE PARTS

SIGNIFICANCE: Rather than writing one page about a hero or a hero-like, epic poems are quicker. At the same time, you can easily be descriptive using metaphors, personification, and much more.

Types of Poetry: Ballad

DEFINITION: a type of poem that can be based on love, death, betrayal

EXAMPLE:  BE WITH ME BY JAMES DICKENSON

This is a ballad for the good times
So put a battery in your leg
Put a rock beat over anything
Get it stuck there in your head
You can be with me

I got nothing to rely on
I've broken every bone
Everybody's stop believing
But you know you're not alone
You can be with me

This is a ballad for the good times
And all the dignity we had
Don't get het up on the evil things
You ain't coming back
You can be with me
If you want to be
You can be with me.... 

SIGNIFICANCE: It's good to write ballads if you want to base your poems on more than one theme. In ballads, you'll be able to express different things in one poem.

Types of Poetry: Narrative

DEFINITION: A poem that tells a story

EXAMPLE:

John Barleycorn
by
Robert Burns

There was three kings into the east,
Three kings both great and high,
And they hae sworn a solemn oath
John Barleycorn should die.
They took a plough and plough'd him down,
Put clods upon his head,
And they hae sworn a solemn oath
John Barleycorn was dead.
But the cheerful Spring came kindly on,
And show'rs began to fall;
John Barleycorn got up again,
And sore surpris'd them all.
The sultry suns of Summer came,
And he grew thick and strong,
His head weel arm'd wi' pointed spears,
That no one should him wrong.
The sober Autumn enter'd mild,
When he grew wan and pale;
His bending joints and drooping head
Show'd he began to fail.
His coulour sicken'd more and more,
He faded into age;
And then his enemies began
To show their deadly rage.
They've taen a weapon, long and sharp,
And cut him by the knee;
Then ty'd him fast upon a cart,
Like a rogue for forgerie.
They laid him down upon his back,
And cudgell'd him full sore;
They hung him up before the storm,
And turn'd him o'er and o'er.
They filled up a darksome pit
With water to the brim,
They heaved in John Barleycorn,
There let him sink or swim.
They laid him out upon the floor,
To work him farther woe,
And still, as signs of life appear'd,
They toss'd him to and fro.
They wasted, o'er a scorching flame,
The marrow of his bones;
But a Miller us'd him worst of all,
For he crush'd him between two stones.
And they hae taen his very heart's blood,
And drank it round and round;
And still the more and more they drank,
Their joy did more abound.
John Barleycorn was a hero bold,
Of noble enterprise,
For if you do but taste his blood,
'Twill make your courage rise.
'Twill make a man forget his woe;
'Twill heighten all his joy:
'Twill make the widow's heart to sing,
Tho' the tear were in her eye.
Then let us toast John Barleycorn,
Each man a glass in hand;
And may his great posterity
Ne'er fail in old Scotland!

SIGNIFICANCE: Narrative poem is like a shorter way to tell a story, but at the same time it can be interesting using poetic devices like rhyming.

Lines

DEFINITION: Row of words which creates a sentence; in poetry, multiple lines will form a verse

EXAMPLE: I love to go out with my friends

                    Not only friends, but family too.

SIGNIFICANCE: In poetry, lines are counted therefore when people are looking for specific parts of the poem, it can be easily identified.

Symbol

DEFINITION:  A mark or sign that represents something else 

EXAMPLE: Symbol of peace would be the picture above

SIGNIFICANCE: Much easier for the readers/audience to understand, however one sign can represent various things depending on the person.

Onomatopoeia

DEFINITION: word that is the sound of the something that it represents

EXAMPLE: MEOW! ~ For cats

SIGNIFICANCE: Allows the readers to visualize the actions in the poem

Assonance

DEFINITION: Multiple words that contain the same vowel sounds but different consonants.

EXAMPLE: Fleet feet sweep by sleeping geese

SIGNIFICANCE: Assonance is just like alliteration however, assonance refers to the vowel sounds. It can be seen in many poems that are based on assonance which makes it fun to read. I think assonance is a poetic device too along with metaphor, personification, etc.

Alliteration

DEFINITION: Multiple words made of the same consonant sounds in the beginning

EXAMPLE: Silly Sally Sat on Someone

SIGNIFICANCE: it's cool to see alliterations in poems because in other types of writings like essays, you rarely see them.