Types of Poems

There are many different types of poems. The difference between each type is based on the format, rhyme, scheme and subject matter. Following are a few forms.

Elegy:     A lyric poem that laments the dead. An explicitly identified elegy is W.H. Auden’s “In memory of William Butler Yeats” and his “Funeral Blues”
Open form/Free verse:    A type of structure or form in poetry characterized by freedom from regularity and consistency in such elements as rhyme, line length, metrical pattern, and overall poetic structure.
Sonnet:    A fourteen-line poem. The Shakespearean or English sonnet is arranged as three quatrains and a final couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg. The Petrarchan or Italian sonnet divides into two parts: an eight-line octave and a six-line sestet, rhyming abba abba cde cde or abba abba cd cd cd.
Octave:    An eight-line unit, which may constitute a stanza; or a section of a poem, as in the octave of a sonnet.
Ode:    A long, stately poem in stanzas of varied length, meter and form. It is usually a serious poem on a exalted subject.
Ballad:    A narrative poem written in four-line stanzas; characterized by swift action and narrated in a direct style.
Epic:    A long narrative poem that records the adventures of a hero.
Epigram:    A brief witty poem, often satirical.
Lyric poem:    A type of poem characterized by brevity, compression, and the expression of feeling.
Narrative Poem:    A poem that tells a story.
Haiku:    Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry which is composed of three non rhyming lines.

                                                      Poets on Poetry:
Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility. (William Wordsworth)
Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal. (T.S. Eliot)