Poetic Forms
By: Becca
Jackson
Overview of Poetic Forms
Ballad
Sonnet
Lyric
Epic
Limerick
Haiku
Objectives from TEKS for 8th
Grade Language Arts
Read classic and contemporary works (8-A)
select varied sources such as plays, anthologies,
novels, textbooks, poetry, newspapers, manuals, and
electronic texts when reading for information or
pleasure (8-B)
Offer observations, make connections, react,
speculate, interpret, and raise questions in response
to texts. (11-A)
Identify the purposes of different types of texts such
as to inform, influence, express, or entertain (12-A)
Understand literary forms by recognizing and
distinguishing among such types of text as myths,
fables, tall tales, limericks, plays, biographies,
autobiographies, tragedy, and comedy (12-E)
Determine distinctive and common characteristics
of cultures through wide reading (14-B)
Ballad
Long narrative poem originally meant to be sung.
May be romantic, heroic, or satirical
Tells a story
A ballad focuses on actions and dialogue rather than
characteristics and narration.
A ballad has a simple metrical structure and sentence
structure.
A ballad is sung to a modal melody.
A ballad is of oral tradition, passed down by word of
mouth. Therefore, it undergoes changes and is of
anonymous authorship.
Excerpt from the Ballad:
John Barleycorn
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.
- Robert Burns 1782
Sonnet
Two forms: Italian “Petrachan” and English
“Shakespearean”
English or Shakespearean sonnets most common and well
known.
The rhyme scheme for the English sonnet is ABAB CDCD
EFEF GG.
Made up of 14 lines with 10 syllables per line.
The sonnet is divided into 3 quatrains (groups of 4 lines)
each of which puts forward a different argument or idea,
and it concludes with a rhyming couplet.
Deals solely with the subject of love.
Example of a Shakespearean
Sonnet
The Overflowing Cup
Into the crystal chalice of the soul
Is falling, drop by drop, Life's blending mead.
The pleasant waters of our childhood speed
And enter first; and Love pours in its whole
Deep flood of tenderness and gall. There roll
The drops of sweet and bitter that proceed
From wedded trustfulness, and hearts that bleed
For children that outrun us to the goal,
And later come the calmer joys of age--
The restful streams of quietude that flow
Around their fading lives, whose heritage
Is whitened locks and voice serene and low.
These added blessings round the vessel up--
Death is the overflowing of the cup.
- Andrew B. Saxton
Lyric
Any fairly short poem in which a speaker expresses
intense personal emotion, a state of mind or a
process of perception, thought and feeling.
Does not describe a narrative or dramatic
situation.
In ancient Greece, lyrics were sung or recited to
the accompaniment of a musical instrument
called a lyre.
Although the lyric is uttered in the first person, the
speaker is not necessarily the poet.
Example of a Lyric Poem
Now angry Juno sends from Heaven in spite
Rivers and Seas, instead of moderate showers
Horror invests the world, and the bright Hours
Of Delos' God, are chang'd to dismal Night.
So crowds of anxious thoughts on ev'ry side
Invade my soul, and through my restless eyes,
I shed such streams of tears, my heart e'en tries
Death's pangs, whilst I by force in life abide.
But the brisk gales, which rising by and by,
Where Sol at night in Thetis' lap shall lie,
Will make Heaven clear, and drive away the rain.
Ah, Cynthia! That the blasts or sighs I vent,
Could ease my breast of cloudy discontent,
Which still with fresh assaults renews my pain.
- The Complaint by Philip Ayres
Epic
A poem celebrating the feats of a legendary or traditional hero.
Events in an epic can be legendary, historical, mythical, or a
combination.
There is typically a struggle of some kind.
An epic is told in a formal and elevated style.
Example:
“Then Nestor knight of Gerene answered, "It is indeed as you say; it is all
coming true at this moment, and even Jove who thunders from on high
cannot prevent it. Fallen is the wall on which we relied as an impregnable
bulwark both for us and our fleet. The Trojans are fighting stubbornly and
without ceasing at the ships; look where you may you cannot see from
what quarter the rout of the Achaeans is coming; they are being killed in
a confused mass and the battle-cry ascends to heaven; let us think, if
counsel can be of any use, what we had better do; but I do not advise
our going into battle ourselves, for a man cannot fight when he is
wounded."
- Homer -The Iliad Book XIV
Limerick
A Limerick is a rhymed humorous, nonsense poem of 5
lines.
a-a-b-b-a rhyme scheme
9-9-6-6-9 syllable scheme
The last line in a Limerick should make the reader laugh by
finishing the story with a funny line, or a punch line.
Example:
There was a young woman from Dorset
Who trialed a new kind of corset.
When she heard a loud POP
And she felt herself flop
She decided not to endorse it.
- Paula Brown
Haiku
An unrhymed poem with 17 syllables.
Shortest form of Japanese poetry
Often times, the first and last lines have 5 syllables and
the second line has 7 syllables.
If frequently expresses delicate emotion or presents an
image (frequently one of a natural object or scene).
Example: The great blue heron
Gliding over the water
A massive wingspan
- Becca Jackson
A fierce predator
The hawk eyes its next victim
Graceful in its hunt
- Becca Jackson
Resources
www.sonnets.org
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~narcisse/webwrite/project/p
oetfm&na.htm
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter110/ch110b.h
tml