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Types of Poetry: The Complete Guide with 28 Examples

by Fija Callaghan

Poetry has been around for almost four thousand years, predating even written language, and it’s still evolving all the time. Let’s explore some of the different types of poems you might come across, including rhymed poetry and free verse poetry, and how experimenting with a poem’s structure can make you a better poet.

Why do the different forms of poetry matter?

Poetic forms are important when we write poems for three main reasons:

1. Forms make poetry easier to remember

At its inception, poetry was used as a way to pass down stories and ideas to new generations. Poetry has been around longer than the written word, but even after people started writing things down, some cultures continued telling stories orally. They did this by telling stories as poems. Using set rhyme schemes, meters, and rhythms made it easier to learn those poems by heart.

2. Form shapes the rhythm and sound of a poem

Using poetic structure helps shape the way a poem will sound when it’s spoken out loud. Even though most of our poetry today is written down, it’s still heard at live performances, and we’ll often “hear” a poem in our head as we’re reading it. Different types of poetry will have different auditory moods and rhythms, which contributes to the overall emotional effect.

3. Form challenges our use of language

As writers, we always want to be challenging ourselves to use words in new and exciting ways. Using the constraints of formal poetry is a great way to stretch our imagination and come up with new ideas. The story theorist Robert McKee calls this “creative limitation.” By imposing limits on what we can do, we’ll instinctively look for ever more creative and imaginative ways to use the limited space that we’re given.

Free verse poetry vs. rhymed poetry

These days, rhymed poetry has fallen out of vogue with contemporary poets, though it still has its champions. In the early 20th century free verse, or free form, poetry was embraced for its fluid, conversational qualities, and dominates the poetic landscape today. It became popular in part because it feels less like a performance and more like you’re talking directly to the reader.

Rhymed poetry, on the other hand, is great for getting a message across to the reader or listener. Most pop songs today are, at least in part, rhymed poetry—that’s why we remember them and find ourselves mulling over the lyrics days later.

We’ll look more at different types of free verse poetry and rhymed poetry, and you can see which ones work best for you.

27 Types of Poetry

You might recognize some of these types of poems from reading poetry like them in school (Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, and Walt Whitman are all names you’ve probably come across in English class!) Others might be new to you. Once you know a little bit more about these common forms (and some less common ones), you can even enjoy writing some of your own!

A haiku is a traditional cornerstone of Japanese poetry with no set rhyme scheme, but a specific shape: three lines composed of five syllables in the first line, seven in the second line, and five in the third line.

Occasionally, some traditional Japanese haiku won’t fit this format because the syllables change when they’re translated into English; but when you’re writing your own haiku poem in your native language, you should try to adhere to this structure.

Haiku poems are often explorations of the natural world, but they can be about anything you like. They’re deceptively simple ideas with a lot of poignancy under the surface.

Here’s an example of a haiku poem, “Over the Wintry” by Natsume Sōseki:

Over the wintry Forest, winds howl in rage With no leaves to blow.

Learn more about writing your own haiku poetry in our dedicated Academy article.

2. Limerick

A limerick is a short, famous poetic form consisting of five lines that follow the rhyme form AABBA. Usually these are quite funny and tell a story. The first two lines should have eight or nine syllables each, the third and fourth lines should have five or six syllables each, and the final line eight or nine syllables again.

Limericks are great learning devices for children because their rhythm makes them so easy to remember. Here’s a fun example of a limerick, “There Was A Small Boy Of Quebec” by Rudyard Kipling:

There was a small boy of Quebec, Who was buried in snow to his neck; When they said, “Are you friz?” He replied, “Yes, I is— But we don’t call this cold in Quebec.”

3. Clerihew

Clerihews are a little bit like limericks in that they’re short, funny, and often satirical. A clerihew is made up of four lines (or several four-line stanzas) with the rhyme scheme AABB, and the first line of the stanza must be a person’s name.

This poetry type is great for helping people remember things (or enacting some good-natured revenge). Here’s a famous example, “Sir Humphrey Davy” by Edmund Clerihew Bentley, the inventor of the eponymous clarihew:

Sir Humphrey Davy Abominated gravy. He lived in the odium Of having discovered sodium.

4. Cinquain

A cinquain is a five-line poem consisting of twenty-two syllables: two in the first line, then four, then six, then eight, and then two syllables again in the last line. These are deceptively simple poems with a lovely musicality that make the writer think hard about the perfect word choices.

Here’s an example of a cinquain poem, “November Night” by Adelaide Crapsey:

Listen… With faint dry sound, Like steps of passing ghosts, The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees And fall.

A triolet is a traditional French single-stanza poem of eight lines with a rhyme scheme of ABAAABAB; however, it only consists of five unique lines. The first line is repeated as the fourth and seventh line, and the second line is repeated as the very last line. Although simple, a well-written triolet will bring new depth and meaning to the repeated lines each time. Here’s an example of a classic triolet poem, “How Great My Grief” by Thomas Hardy:

How great my grief, my joys how few, Since first it was my fate to know thee! Have the slow years not brought to view How great my grief, my joys how few, Nor memory shaped old times anew, Nor loving-kindness helped to show thee How great my grief, my joys how few, Since first it was my fate to know thee?

A dizain is another traditional form made up of just one ten-line stanza, and with each line having ten syllables (that’s an even hundred in total). The rhyme scheme for a dizain is ABABBCCDCD. This poetry type was a favorite of French poets in the 15th and 16th century, and many English poets adapted it into larger works. Here’s an great example of a dizain poem, “Names” by Brad Osborne:

If true that a rose by another name Holds in its fine form fragrance just as sweet If vivid beauty remains just the same And if other qualities are replete With the things that make a rose so complete Why bother giving anything a name Then on whom may I place deserved blame When new people’s names I cannot recall There seems to be an underlying shame So why do we bother with names at all

A sonnet is a lyric poem that always has fourteen lines. The oldest type of sonnet is the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet, which is broken into two stanzas of eight lines and six lines. The first stanza has a consistent rhyme scheme of ABBA ABBA and the second stanza has a rhyme scheme of either CDECDE or CDCDCD.

Later on, an ambitious bloke by the name of William Shakespeare developed the English sonnet (which later came to be known as the Shakespearean sonnet). It still has fourteen lines, but the rhyme scheme is different and it uses a rhythm called iambic pentameter. It has four distinctive parts, which might be separate stanzas or they might be all linked together. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

William Shakespeare is famous for using iambic pentameter in his sonnets, but you can experiment with different rhythms and see what works best for you. Here’s one of his most famous sonnets, Sonnet 18:

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st; So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

8. Blank verse

Blank verse is a type of poetry that’s written in a precise meter, usually iambic pentameter, but without rhyme. This is reminiscent of Shakespearean sonnets and many of his plays, but it reflects a movement that puts rhythm above rhyme.

Though each line of blank verse must be ten syllables, there’s no restriction on the amount of lines or individual stanzas. Here’s an excerpt from a poem in blank verse, the first stanza of “Frost at Midnight” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge:

The Frost performs its secret ministry, Unhelped by any wind. The owlet’s cry Came loud—and hark, again! loud as before. The inmates of my cottage, all at rest, Have left me to that solitude, which suits Abstruser musings: save that at my side My cradled infant slumbers peacefully. ’Tis calm indeed! so calm, that it disturbs And vexes meditation with its strange And extreme silentness. Sea, hill, and wood, This populous village! Sea, and hill, and wood, With all the numberless goings-on of life, Inaudible as dreams! the thin blue flame Lies on my low-burnt fire, and quivers not; Only that film, which fluttered on the grate

9. Villanelle

A villanelle is a type of French poem made up of nineteen lines grouped into six separate stanzas. The first five stanzas have three lines each, and the last stanza has four lines. Each three-line stanza rhymes ABA, and the last one ABAA.

Villanelles tend to feature a lot of repetition, which lends them a musical quality; usually the very first and third lines become the alternating last lines of each following stanza. This can be a bit like putting a puzzle together. Here’s an example to show you how it looks: “My Darling Turns to Poetry at Night,” a famous villanelle by Anthony Lawrence:

My darling turns to poetry at night. What began as flirtation, an aside Between abstract expression and first light Now finds form as a silent, startled flight Of commas on her face—a breath, a word… My darling turns to poetry at night. When rain inspires the night birds to create Rhyme and formal verse, stanzas can be made Between abstract expression and first light. Her heartbeat is a metaphor, a late Bloom of red flowers that refuse to fade. My darling turns to poetry at night. I watch her turn. I do not sleep. I wait For symbols, for a sign that fear has died Between abstract expression and first light. Her dreams have night vision, and in her sight Our bodies leave ghostprints on the bed. My darling turns to poetry at night Between abstract expression and first light.

10. Paradelle

The paradelle is a complex and demanding variation of the villanelle, developed in France in the 11th century… except it wasn’t. It was, in fact, a hoax developed in the 20th century that got drastically out of hand. The American poet Billy Collins invented the paradelle as a satire of the popular villanelle and, like many happy accidents, the paradelle was embraced as a welcome challenge and is now part of contemporary poetry’s repertoire.

A paradelle is composed of four six-line stanzas. In each of the first three stanzas, the first two lines must be the same, the second two lines must be the same, and the final two lines must contain every word from the first and third lines, and only those words, rearranged in a new order. The fourth and final stanza must contain every word from the fifth and sixth lines of the first three stanzas, and only those words, again rearranged in a new order.

11th-century relic or not, this poetry form is a great exercise for playing with words. Here’s an excerpt from the original paradelle that started it all, the first stanzas of “Paradelle for Susan” by Billy Collins:

I remember the quick, nervous bird of your love. I remember the quick, nervous bird of your love. Always perched on the thinnest highest branch. Always perched on the thinnest highest branch. Thinnest love, remember the quick branch. Always nervous, I perched on you highest bird the. It is time for me to cross the mountain. It is time for me to cross the mountain. And find another shore to darken with my pain. And find another shore to darken with my pain. Another pain for me to darken the mountain. And find the time, cross my shore, to with it is to. The weather warm, the handwriting familiar. The weather warm, the handwriting familiar. Your letter flies from my hand into the waters below. Your letter flies from my hand into the waters below. The familiar water below my warm hand. Into handwriting your weather flies you letter the from the. I always cross the highest letter, the thinnest bird. Below the waters of my warm familiar pain, Another hand to remember your handwriting. The weather perched for me on the shore. Quick, your nervous branch flew from love. Darken the mountain, time and find was my into it was with to to.

11. Sestina

A sestina is a complex French poetry form (a real one, this time) composed of thirty-nine lines in seven stanzas—six stanzas of six lines each, and one stanza of three lines. Each word at the end of each line in the first stanza then gets repeated at the end of each line in each following stanza, but in a different order.

Some poets use favorite metres or rhyme schemes in their sestina poems, but you don’t have to. The classic form of a sestina is:

First stanza: ABCDEF; each letter represents the word at the end of each line.

Second stanza: FAEBDC

Third stanza: CFDABE

Fourth stanza: ECBFAD

Fifth stanza: DEACFB

Sixth stanza: BDFECA

Seventh stanza: ACE or ECA

Here’s an excerpt from a modern example of a sestina, the first stanzas of “A Miracle For Breakfast” by Elizabeth Bishop. Looking at the first two stanzas, you can see that the repeated end words match the mixed-up letter guide above.

At six o’clock we were waiting for coffee, waiting for coffee and the charitable crumb that was going to be served from a certain balcony like kings of old, or like a miracle. It was still dark. One foot of the sun steadied itself on a long ripple in the river. The first ferry of the day had just crossed the river. It was so cold we hoped that the coffee would be very hot, seeing that the sun was not going to warm us; and that the crumb would be a loaf each, buttered, by a miracle. At seven a man stepped out on the balcony.

A rondel is a French type of poetry made of three stanzas: the first two are four lines long, and the third is five or six lines long. The first two lines of the poems are refrains which are repeated as the last two lines of the following two stanzas—although sometimes the poet will choose only one line to repeat at the very last line.

Rondels usually use a ABBA ABAB ABBAA rhyme scheme, but they can be written in any meter. Here’s an example of a traditional rondel poem, “The Wanderer” by Henry Austin Dobson:

Love comes back to his vacant dwelling— The old, old Love that we knew of yore! We see him stand by the open door, With his great eyes sad, and his bosom swelling. He makes as though in our arms repelling, He fain would lie as he lay before;— Love comes back to his vacant dwelling, The old, old Love that we knew of yore! Ah, who shall help us from over-spelling That sweet, forgotten, forbidden lore! E’en as we doubt in our heart once more, With a rush of tears to our eyelids welling, Love comes back to his vacant dwelling.

A ghazal is an old Arabic poetry form consisting of at least ten lines, but no more than thirty, all written in two-line stanzas called couplets. The first two lines of a ghazal end with the same word, but the words just preceding the last lines will rhyme. From this point on, the second line of each couplet will have the same last word, and the word just before it will rhyme with the others.

Ghazals are traditionally a poem of love and longing, but they can be written about any feeling or idea. Here’s an excerpt from a ghazal poem, the first stanzas of “Ghazal of the Better-Unbegun” by Heather McHugh:

Too volatile, am I? too voluble? too much a word-person? I blame the soup: I’m a primordially stirred person. Two pronouns and a vehicle was Icarus with wings. The apparatus of his selves made an absurd person. The sound I make is sympathy’s: sad dogs are tied afar. But howling I become an ever more unheard person.

14. Golden shovel

A golden shovel poem is a more recent poetry form that was developed by poet Terrance Hayes and inspired by Gwendolyn Brooks. Though it’s much newer than many of the types of poetry on this list, it has been enthusiastically embraced in contemporary poetry.

It’s a bit like an acrostic-style poem in that it hides a secret message: the last word of every line of a golden shovel poem is a word from another poem’s title or line, or a saying or headline you want to work with.

For example, if you want to write a golden shovel poem about the line, “dead men tell no tales,” the first line of your poem would end in “dead,” the second line in “men,” and so on until you can read your entire message along the right-hand side of the poem.

Here’s an excerpt from Terrance Hayes’s poem that started the golden shovel trend:

When I am so small Da’s sock covers my arm, we cruise at twilight until we find the place the real men lean, bloodshot and translucent with cool. His smile is a gold-plated incantation as we drift by women on bar stools, with nothing left in them but approachlessness. This is a school I do not know yet. But the cue sticks mean we are rubbed by light, smooth as wood, the lurk of smoke thinned to song. We won’t be out late.

15. Palindrome

Palindrome poems, also called “mirror poems,” are poems that begin repeating backwards halfway through, so that the first line and the last line are the same, the second line and the second-to-last line are the same, and so on.

They’re a challenging yet fun way to show two sides of the same story. Here’s an example of a palindrome poem, “On Reflection” by Kristin Bock:

Far from the din of the articulated world, I wanted to be content in an empty room— a barn on the hillside like a bone, a limbo of afternoons strung together like cardboard boxes, to be free of your image— crown of bees, pail of black water staggering through the pitiful corn. I can’t always see through it. The mind is a pond layered in lilies. The mind is a pond layered in lilies. I can’t always see through it staggering through the pitiful corn. Crown of Bees, Pail of Black Water, to be of your image— a limbo of afternoons strung together like cardboard boxes, a barn on the hillside like a bone. I wanted to be content in an empty room far from the din of the articulated world.

An ode is a poetic form of celebration used to honor a person, thing, or idea. They’re often overflowing with intense emotion and powerful imagery.

Odes can be used in conjunction with formal meters and rhyme schemes, but they don’t have to be; often poets will favor internal rhymes instead, to give their ode a sense of rhythm.

This is a more open-ended poetry type you can use to show your appreciation for something or someone. Here’s an excerpt from one of the most famous and beautiful odes, written in celebration of autumn: “To Autumn” by John Keats:

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run; To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease, For Summer has o’er-brimmed their clammy cells.

An elegy is similar to an ode in that it celebrates a person or idea, but in this instance is the poem centers around something that has died or been lost.

There’s a tradition among poets to write elegies for one another once another poet has died. Sometimes these are obvious memoriams of a deceased person, and other times the true meaning will be hidden behind layers of symbolism and metaphor.

Like the ode, there’s no formal meter or rhyme scheme in an elegy, though you can certainly experiment with using them.

Here’s an excerpt of an elegy written by one poet for another, “In Memory of W. B. Yeats” by W. H. Auden:

He disappeared in the dead of winter: The brooks were frozen, the airports almost deserted, And snow disfigured the public statues; The mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day. What instruments we have agree The day of his death was a dark cold day. Far from his illness The wolves ran on through the evergreen forests, The peasant river was untempted by the fashionable quays; By mourning tongues The death of the poet was kept from his poems.

18. Ekphrasis

Ekphrastic poetry is a little bit like an ode, as it is also written in celebration of something. Ekphrasis, however, is very specific as it’s used to draw attention to a work of art—usually visual art, but it could be something like a song or a work of fiction too. Sometimes ekphrastic poems and odes can overlap, like in John Keats’ “Ode to a Grecian Urn”—an ekphrastic ode.

Ekphrastic poems are most often written about paintings, but it can also be about sculptures, dance, or even theatrical performances.

Ekphrasis has no set meter or rhyme scheme, but some poets like to use them. Here’s an excerpt from an ekphrastic poem, “The Starry Night” by Anne Sexton, in celebration of Van Gogh’s painting:

The town does not exist except where one black-haired tree slips up like a drowned woman into the hot sky. The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars. Oh starry starry night! This is how I want to die. It moves. They are all alive. Even the moon bulges in its orange irons to push children, like a god, from its eye. The old unseen serpent swallows up the stars. Oh starry starry night! This is how I want to die.

19. Pastoral

Pastoral poetry can take any meter or rhyme scheme, but it focuses on the beauty of nature. These poems draw attention to idyllic settings and romanticize the idea of shepherds and agriculture laborers living in harmony with the natural world.

Often these traditional pastoral poems carry a religious overtone, suggesting that by bringing oneself closer to nature they were also becoming closer to their spirituality. They can be written in free verse, or in poetic structure. Here’s an excerpt from a famous pastoral poem, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Marlowe:

Come live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove That valleys, groves, hills, and fields, Woods, or steepy mountain yields. And we will sit upon the rocks, Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks, By shallow rivers to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals.

An epic poem is a grand, overarching story written in verse—they’re the novels of the poetry world. This is sometimes called ballad poetry, or narrative poetry. Before stories were written as novels and short stories and then, later, screenplays, all of our classic tales would be written as a narrative poem.

Experimenting with epic poems, such as writing a short story all in verse, is a great way to give your writer’s muscles a workout. These don’t have a specific rhyme scheme or metre, although many classic epic poems do use them to give a sense of rhythm and unity to the piece.

Here’s an excerpt from one of our oldest surviving epic poems, “Beowulf,” translated from old English by Frances B. Gummere:

Lo, praise of the prowess of people-kings of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped, we have heard, and what honor the athelings won! Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes, from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore, awing the earls. Since erst he lay friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him: for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve, till before him the folk, both far and near, who house by the whale-path, heard his mandate, gave him gifts: a good king he!

(Irish poet Seamus Heaney has also completed an even more modern translation for the layperson.)

A ballad is similar to an epic in that it tells a story, but it’s much shorter and a bit more structured. This poetry form is made up of four-line stanzas (as many as are needed to tell the story) with a rhyme scheme of ABCB.

Ballads were originally meant to be set to music, which is where we get the idea of our slow, sultry love song ballads today. A lot of traditional ballads are all in dialogue, where two characters are speaking back and forth.

Here’s an excerpt from a traditional ballad poem, “La Belle Dame sans Merci” by John Keats:

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has withered from the lake, And no birds sing. O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, So haggard and so woe-begone? The squirrel’s granary is full, And the harvest’s done.

22. Acrostic

In acrostic poems, certain letters of each line spell out a word or message. Usually the letters that spell the message will be the first letter of each line, so that you can read the secret word right down the margin; however, you can also use the letters at the end or down the middle of the lines to hide a secret message. Acrostic poems are especially popular with children and are sometimes called “name poems.”

Here’s an example of an acrostic poem, “A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky” by Lewis Carroll. The first letter of each line spells out “Alice Pleasance Liddell,” who was a young friend of Carroll’s and the inspiration behind Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland .

A boat beneath a sunny sky, L ingering onward dreamily I n an evening of July— C hildren three that nestle near, E ager eye and willing ear, P leased a simple tale to hear— L ong has paled that sunny sky: E choes fade and memories die: A utumn frosts have slain July. S till she haunts me, phantomwise, A lice moving under skies N ever seen by waking eyes. C hildren yet, the tale to hear, E ager eye and willing ear, L ovingly shall nestle near. I n a Wonderland they lie, D reaming as the days go by, D reaming as the summers die: E ver drifting down the stream— L ingering in the golden gleam— L ife, what is it but a dream?

23. Concrete

A concrete poem, sometimes called a shape poem, is a visual poem structure where the shape of the poem resembles its content or message. These are another favorite with children, although they can be used to communicate powerful adult ideas, too.

When writing concrete poetry, you can experiment with different fonts, sizes, and even colors to create your visual poem. Here’s an example of a concrete poem, “Sonnet in the Shape of a Potted Christmas Tree” by George Starbuck:

* O fury- bedecked! O glitter-torn! Let the wild wind erect bonbonbonanzas; junipers affect frostyfreeze turbans; iciclestuff adorn all cuckolded creation in a madcap crown of horn! It’s a new day; no scapegrace of a sect tidying up the ashtrays playing Daughter-in-Law Elect; bells! bibelots! popsicle cigars! shatter the glassware! a son born now now while ox and ass and infant lie together as poor creatures will and tears of her exertion still cling in the spent girl’s eye and a great firework in the sky drifts to the western hill.

24. Prose poem

A prose poem combines elements of both prose writing and poetry into something new. Prose poems don’t have shape and line breaks in the way that traditional poems do, but they make use of poetic devices like meter, internal rhyme, alliteration, metaphor, imagery, and symbolism to create a snapshot of prose that reads and feels like a poem.

Here’s an example of a prose poem, “Be Drunk” by Charles Baudelaire:

You have to be always drunk. That’s all there is to it—it’s the only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually drunk. But on what? Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be drunk. And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace or the green grass of a ditch, in the mournful solitude of your room, you wake again, drunkenness already diminishing or gone, ask the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock, everything that is flying, everything that is groaning, everything that is rolling, everything that is singing, everything that is speaking… ask what time it is and wind, wave, star, bird, clock will answer you: “It is time to be drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of time, be drunk, be continually drunk! On wine, on poetry or on virtue as you wish.”

25. Found poetry

Found poetry is a poem made up of a composite of external quotations. This may be from poems, beloved works of literature, newspaper articles, instruction manuals, or political manifestos. You can copy out pieces of text, or you can cut out different words to make a visual collage effect.

Another form of found poetry is blackout poetry, where words are crossed out and removed from an external source to create a new meaning.

These can be a great way to find new or contrasting meaning in everyday life, but always be sure to reference what sources your poem came from originally to avoid plagiarism. Here’s an example of a found poem, “Testimony” by Charles Reznikoff, cut up from law reports between 1885 and 1915:

Amelia was just fourteen and out of the orphan asylum; at her first job—in the bindery, and yes sir, yes ma’am, oh, so anxious to please. She stood at the table, her blond hair hanging about her shoulders, “knocking up” for Mary and Sadie, the stichers (“knocking up” is counting books and stacking them in piles to be taken away).

A nonce poem is a DIY poem structure intended for one-time use to challenge yourself as a writer, or just to try something new. It’s a formal, rigid, standardized poetry form that’s brand new to the world.

For example, you might say, “I’m going to write a poem starting with a three-line stanza, then two four-line stanzas, then another three-line stanza, and each line is going to be eight syllables except the first and last line of the poem which are each going to have eleven syllables, and the last word of every stanza will be true rhymes and the first word of every stanza will be slant rhymes.” And then you do it, just to see if you can.

Nonce poems are a great way to stretch your creativity and language skills to their limit. Then, like Terrance Hayes’s “Golden Shovel,” or Billy Collins’ “Paradelle,” your nonce poem might even catch on! Here’s an excerpt from a nonce poem, “And If I Did, What Then?” by George Gascoigne:

Are you aggriev’d therefore? The sea hath fish for every man, And what would you have more?” Thus did my mistress once, Amaze my mind with doubt; And popp’d a question for the nonce To beat my brains about.

27. Free verse

Free verse is the type of poetry most favored by contemporary poets; it has no set meter, rhyme scheme, or structure, but allows the poet to feel out the content of the poem as they go.

Poets will often still use rhythmic literary devices such as assonance and internal rhymes, but it won’t be bound up with the same creative restraints as more structured poetry. However, even poets that work solely in free verse will usually argue that it’s beneficial to first work up your mastery of language through exercises in more structured poetry forms.

Here’s an example of a poem in free verse, an excerpt from “On Turning Ten,” by Billy Collins:

The whole idea of it makes me feel like I’m coming down with something, something worse than any stomach ache or the headaches I get from reading in bad light— a kind of measles of the spirit, a mumps of the psyche, a disfiguring chicken pox of the soul.

3 ways poem structure will make you a better writer

Maybe you’ve fallen in love with formal rhymed poetry, or maybe you think that for you, free verse is the way to go. Either way, it’s good training for a writer to experiment with poetry structure for a few different reasons.

1. Using poetic form will teach you about poetic devices

Using poetic form will open up your world to a huge range of useful poetic devices like assonance, chiasmus, and epistrophe, as well as broader overarching ideas like metaphor, imagery, and symbolism. We talk about these poetic devices a lot in poetry forms, but just about all of them can be used effectively in prose writing, too!

Paying attention to poetic form takes your mastery of language to a whole new level. Then you can take this skill set and apply it to your writing in a whole range of mediums.

2. Writing poems with structure teaches you how to use rhythm

Rhythm is one of the core concepts of all poetry. Rhymes and formal meter are two ways to capture rhythm in your poems, but even in free verse poetry that lacks a formal poetic structure, the key to good poetry is a smooth and addictive rhythm that makes you feel the words in your bones.

Once you start experimenting with poetry forms, you’ll find that you’ll develop an inner ear for the rhythm of language. This rhythmic sense translates into beautiful sentence structure and cadence in other types of writing, from short stories and novels, to marketing copy, to comic books. Rhythm is what makes your words a joy to read.

3. Formal poetry helps you increase your vocabulary and refine your word choice

No matter what you’re writing, specificity is a game changer when it comes to getting a point across to your reader. With the English language being well-populated with nice, easy syllables, many new writers fall into the bad habit of choosing words that are just kind of okay, instead of the exact right word for that moment.

Writing formal poetry forces you to not only expand your vocabulary to find the right word to fit the rhyme scheme or rhythm, but to weigh each word and examine it from all angles before awarding it a place in your poem. This way, when you move into other forms of writing, you’ll carry good habits and a deep respect for language into your work.

Start writing different types of poetry

Learning about different types of poems for the first time can be a bit like opening a floodgate into a whole new way of living. Whether you prefer free verse poetry, lyric poetry, romantic Shakespearean sonnets, short philosophical haiku, or even coming up with your own nonce poetry structure, you’ll find that writing poetry challenges your writer’s muscles in ways you never would have expected. Next time you’re in a creative rut, trying experimenting with poetry forms to get the words flowing in a whole new way.

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On January 20, 2021, 22-year-old youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman inspired the country and made history when she read her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration of the 46th President of the United States, Joe Biden. Gorman’s free verse poem touched on themes of unity, hope, and progress; it encouraged Americans to continue working toward a “union with purpose.” (If you don’t know what “free verse” means, don’t worry—we will cover that on the next slide.)

Gorman is the youngest known inaugural poet, and her moving reading of “The Hill We Climb” ignited a newfound interest in poetry, often considered an obscure form of writing. To many, poetry can seem daunting because it’s so different from prose. But there is no wrong way to read a poem . If you find a poem that you connect with, even if you’re not sure what it is “supposed to” mean, you’re reading it right!

To help demystify poetry a bit, and in celebration of National Poetry Month, we are going to break down some of the different kinds or forms of poetry. Along the way, we are going to show you some classic examples of these poems and give you some guidance on how you can write poetry yourself—any day of the year.

Listening to Gorman’s performance of her poem is just one way to garner curiosity in poetry. Learn some fantastic ways to get your child (and yourself) excited about poetry!

If you watched Amanda Gorman’s performance, you may have noticed that it sounded very similar to typical speech patterns. That isn’t so surprising for free verse poems, or “verse that does not follow a fixed metrical pattern.” In other words, it doesn’t have to follow any of the strict rules about syllables , rhyme , or cadence that we will see in other forms. But, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t use any of these elements. It just means that the writer can choose which of them they want to use. Basically, every free verse poem uses its own unique structure.

Free verse is a popular and common form of poetry. In addition to “The Hill We Climb,” other famous free verse poems include “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot and “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath. Perhaps the most famous American free verse poem, though, is “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman (1892), which begins:

I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air, Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same, I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin, Hoping to cease not till death.

Creeds and schools in abeyance, Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten, I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard, Nature without check with original energy.

As you can see from this excerpt, the lines here don’t rhyme, and there isn’t a pattern in the length of the lines or how many lines there are to a stanza (group of lines). Try reading it aloud (or listen to dulcet -toned Nate DiMeo read it to you here ) and see how much it sounds like a conversation the narrator is having with himself.

slam poetry

Another poetry form that does not follow strict rules is slam poetry . Slam poetry is free-form poetry designed to be performed aloud. The name comes from poetry competitions known as “poetry slams.” In this way, slam poetry is a kind of performance art . In fact, Amanda Gorman’s recitation of “The Hill We Climb” had a lot of slam poetry elements, including hand gestures to punctuate and emphasize important moments in the text.

Slam poetry gets its inspiration from the beat poets and French-speaking Négritude poets who wanted their work to protest the conventional, European forms of poetry. Throughout its history, slam poetry has been associated with forms of activism and giving voice to those who have been historically marginalized.

Slam poetry is designed to be watched and listened to, not read. One classic example is “Falling in Like,” by Big Poppa E. You can read a short excerpt of this poem about young love below, but we recommend you watch him perform it here instead.

you make me feel… goofy.

goofy like i blush when someone mentions your name.

goofy like i have a bzillion things i wanna tell you when you’re not around, but face-to-face i just stare at my toe making circles on the ground, like i’m all thumbs and no place to put them, like i just wanna write you a note that says:

do you like me? ? yes ? no ? maybe

You probably noticed that this poem doesn’t use proper spelling, capitalization, or punctuation, and even has some unusual elements like checkboxes. That’s the thing about slam poetry —you can be as creative as you want with it. If you’re worried that you won’t be able to follow the rules of the other forms (or simply don’t want to), slam poetry is a great place to start writing. The only limit is your imagination!

Want to know more about slam poetry ? Visit our article on getting a close look at the full experience of slam poetry .

In a lot of ways, slam poetry is the modern incarnation of the ode . Originally, an ode was “a poem intended to be sung.” Today, an ode is “a lyric poem typically of elaborate or irregular metrical form and expressive of exalted or enthusiastic emotion.” A lyric poem is a poem that expresses personal feelings or emotion. (The name comes from the instrument the lyre , which was played to accompany these poems in their original form.)

Perhaps the most famous example of an ode is “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats (1819). In the poem, the narrator describes the images on an ancient Greek urn , which he uses as a way to express his feelings about art in general.

A more accessible ode might be “Ode on Solitude” by Alexander Pope (1700), in which the narrator talks about his desire to live the simple life, alone:

Happy the man, whose wish and care A few paternal acres bound, Content to breathe his native air, In his own ground.

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread, Whose flocks supply him with attire, Whose trees in summer yield him shade, In winter fire.

This ode happens to use a specific rhyming pattern and meter, but there are no requirements that your ode has to. In ancient Greek literature, odes were seven stanzas of five lines of 10 syllables. As you can see from our example from Pope here, that form is no longer a requirement. However, if you want to try writing your own ode , you might want to start with the ancient Greek format, because other ode structures can become quite complicated.

We just talked about types of poetry that don’t necessarily have any specific requirements when it comes to rhyme, meter, or anything else. So, let’s pause for a moment and ask ourselves, “Why do some forms of poetry follow strict rules? Why not just write in whatever way we choose, like in free verse or slam poetry ?”

Well, some poets actually find that the rules of certain forms of poetry inspire creativity. In a sense, having a structure gives you a place to start—staring at a blank page can be daunting for any writer! So ironically, having rules can give you more freedom to express yourself.

One classic form that has specific rules is the sonnet . A sonnet is a poem of 14 lines usually written in iambic pentameter . Iambic pentameter is a line of 10 syllables, with every other syllable stressed. (An iamb is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, like “mo tion ” or “I ate .”)

The most famous sonnets are those written by Shakespeare , like the one that begins “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.”

One of our favorite sonnets is “Nuns Fret Not At Their Convent’s Narrow Room” by William Wordsworth. What is wonderful about this poem is that it explains how the strict rules of the sonnet give the narrator “ solace ” (comfort).

Nuns fret not at their convent’s narrow room; And hermits are contented with their cells; And students with their pensive citadels; Maids at the wheel, the weaver at his loom, Sit blithe and happy; bees that soar for bloom, High as the highest Peak of Furness-fells, Will murmur by the hour in foxglove bells: In truth the prison, unto which we doom Ourselves, no prison is: and hence for me, In sundry moods, ’twas pastime to be bound Within the Sonnet’s scanty plot of ground; Pleased if some Souls (for such there needs must be) Who have felt the weight of too much liberty, Should find brief solace there, as I have found.

Another classic form of poetry is the ballad . Similar to the ode , ballads were originally designed to be sung. A ballad is “a simple narrative poem of folk origin, composed in short stanzas and adapted for singing.” Usually, ballads tell a story or recount a series of events. They are often considered one of the easiest kinds of “formal” poetry to write.

A classic ballad is typically written in four-line stanzas (a quatrain ) that follow some kind of rhyming pattern, although the specific pattern can depend on the poem. Generally, though, ballads use the rhyme scheme ABCB, meaning the second and final lines of each stanza rhyme, and the first and third lines of the stanza do not rhyme. Ballads also generally use iambic tetrameter, meaning a line of eight syllables, alternating with iambic trimeter, a line of six syllables.

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Coleridge (1834) is one of the best-known ballads . It doesn’t follow the classic ballad form exactly, but you can get a sense of what ballads are all about from this excerpt:

It is an ancient Mariner, And he stoppeth one of three. ‘By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, Now wherefore stopp’st thou me?

The Bridegroom’s doors are opened wide, And I am next of kin; The guests are met, the feast is set: May’st hear the merry din.’

As you might have noticed, the lines alternate between eight syllables and six syllables, so it is a little different from a classic ballad . But you could certainly imagine these lines being put to music, right?

An enthralling speech can be pure poetry as well, especially if it uses poetic devices. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech is a prime example—find out why!

Villanelle isn’t just the name of the elusive hitwoman in the TV crime drama Killing Eve . It’s also a poetic form. A villanelle is a fancy ballad that follows these rules:

• Five stanzas of three lines each, followed by a single stanza of four lines.
• The stanzas of three lines each use an ABA rhyme (the first and last line rhyme).
• The final stanza uses an ABAA rhyme.
• The first line of the poem is repeated at the end of the second and fourth stanzas.
• The third line of the poem is repeated at the end of the third and fifth stanzas.

Likely the most famous villanelle of all time is “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas (1951). You can get a sense of the rhyme scheme and the repeated lines from this excerpt here:

Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night.

As you can see from this example, the first line, “Do not go gentle into that good night,” is repeated at the end of the second stanza.

Villanelles are a little more challenging to write than a typical ballad. If the rhyme schemes and repetition seem like altogether too many rules for you, you may be more interested in…

The haiku form comes from Japanese poetic traditions. It’s closely associated with the 17th-century poet Matsuo Bash?. These short poems have a simple structure: the first and last line have five syllables, and the second line has seven syllables. Traditionally, these poems were “often on the subject of nature or one of the seasons,” but you can write a haiku about anything!

The most famous Bash? haiku is:

an ancient pond a frog jumps in the splash of water

Lovely, right? As you might have noticed, these lines don’t have any kind of rhyme scheme; there is just a simple syllable pattern. (The 5-7-5 pattern is there in the original Japanese.)

If you’re a total novice to writing poetry, haiku is a great place to start. Another relatively simple form of poetry to write is…

Limericks are funny, often raunchy, poems that follow the following form:

• Five lines that follow the AABBA rhyming pattern (the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme, and the third and fourth lines rhyme).
• The third and fourth lines are typically shorter than the other lines.
• On the third and fourth lines, the rhythm is two short syllables followed by a long one ( anapest ).
• On the other lines, the rhythm is short syllable, long syllable, short syllable ( amphibrach ).

All those notes about rhythm might seem daunting, but don’t worry about them too much. The most important thing is to stick to the AABBA rhyming pattern. Additionally, limericks often begin:

There was a [something] from [somewhere]…

One classic limerick that spawned countless (sometimes dirty) imitations was written by Dayton Voorhees (1902):

There once was a man from Nantucket Who kept all his cash in a bucket. But his daughter, named Nan, Ran away with a man And as for the bucket, Nantucket.

If you’re really feeling stuck with your limerick, you can take inspiration from this one—like many poets before you—and start with the same first line.

blackout poetry

If you’re not interested in, or feel daunted by, the practice of writing poetry, you might find the contemporary and innovative form of blackout poetry (also known as found poetry ) more appealing. It’s one of the most accessible forms of poetry out there.

All you need to start is a piece of paper with writing on it—a newspaper, a recipe, a page from a book—and a black marker. Then, as the creator of blackout poetry, Austin Kleon, puts it, “cross out words, leaving behind the ones you like.”

The result is a poem consisting of words that stand out on the page in contrast to the black of the marker. It’s striking, both poetically and visually. Blackout poetry is especially appealing because people of all ages can easily try their hand at it, like in this example:

Blackout Poetry continued… Ss poems are starting to take shape and we’re discovering that this is harder than it looks! If you have an old book at home, we highly recommend you try blackout poetry too! ?? @AllenbyPS_TDSB pic.twitter.com/1WvLDyg38N — Mme.Bedder (@MmeBedder) March 17, 2021

As we’ve seen, poetry can take many forms—it’s just a matter of what you’re looking for. Whether you feel inspired to write poetry yourself, or merely take the time to read a few poems every now again, don’t worry about getting it “right.” Just try to stay curious, be gentle with yourself, and remain open to multiple meanings. After all, as American poet Mary Oliver once wrote, “a poem on the page speaks to the listening mind.”

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4.29: Lesson 14: Form in Poetry

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Patterns in Poetry

Some poems come in specific patterns–a specific form, such as sonnets, villanelles, and concrete poems. These forms have specific rules that the poet must follow.

The sonnet is written in iambic pentameter. What’s that? It’s a specific rhythm. Each line has ten syllables with five pairs of iambs. Iambs are an unstressed syllable paired with a stressed syllable, so it will have the beat like this:

daDA / daDA / daDA / daDA / daDA

The Shakespearean sonnet has fourteen lines with a specific rhyme pattern. Each pair of words that rhymes alternate a line for the first 12 lines. For example, Line 1 and Line 3 end in a rhyme, and Line 2 and Line 4 end in a rhyme.  The last two lines have their own rhyme. The rhyme scheme looks like this:

a b a b c d c d e f e f g g

Read William Shakespeare’s sonnet “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer Day?” Look at the specific traits of the form: the iambic pentameter rhythm and the rhyme scheme.

Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer Day Author : William Shakespeare ©1598

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d, And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d: But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st, Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st, So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Other types of sonnets include the Petrarchan, a fourteen-line sonnet with the rhyme scheme of abba, abba, cde, cde.

Blank Verse

Blank verse is a poem that does not rhyme, but it has five stressed beats per line.

The villanelle contains five stanzas with three lines each, which is called tercets. The sixth stanza has four lines, which is called a quatrain. The total number of lines needed for a villanelle is 19 lines.

The villanelle also has two repeating lines. The first line in the first stanza repeats in the sixth, twelfth, and eighteenth lines. The third line in the first stanza repeats in the ninth, fifteenth, and nineteenth lines.

The villanelle follows this rhyme scheme: aba, aba, aba, aba, aba, abaa.

Check out this form in Dylan Thomas’ poem “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night.”

Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night Author : Dylan Thomas ©1951

Concrete Poetry

Concrete poetry, also called visual poetry, takes on the shape of the topic being written about. The lines and words are typed specifically to create a design and enhance the meaning. For example, read and study the format of George Herbert’s poem “Easter Wings.”

Easter Wings Author : George Herbert ©1633

Free verse poetry has no form, meaning it has no stressed beats per line. This is the most common type of poetry that is written today.

• Lesson 14: Form in Poetry. Authored by : Linda Frances Lein. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer Day?. Authored by : William Shakespeare. Provided by : Wikisource. Located at : https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Sonnet_18_(Shakespeare) . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night. Authored by : Dylan Thomas. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villanelle . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Easter Wings. Authored by : George Herbert. Provided by : Wikipedia. Located at : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Wings . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike

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Let’s Read a Poem! What Type of Poetry Boosts Creativity?

Małgorzata osowiecka.

1 Warsaw Faculty of Psychology, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland

Alina Kolańczyk

2 Faculty in Sopot, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Sopot, Poland

Associated Data

Datasets are available upon request. The raw data supporting the conclusions of this manuscript will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation, to any qualified researcher.

Poetry is one of the most creative uses of language. Yet the influence of poetry on creativity has received little attention. The present research aimed to determine how the reception of different types of poetry affect creativity levels. In two experimental studies, participants were assigned to two conditions: poetry reading and non-poetic text reading. Participants read poems (Study 1 = narrative/open metaphors; Study 2 = descriptive/conventional metaphors) or control pieces of non-poetic text. Before and after the reading manipulation, participants were given a test to determine levels of divergent thinking (DT; i.e., fluency, flexibility, and originality). Additionally, in both studies, the impact of frequent contact with poetry was examined. In Study 1 ( N = 107), participants showed increased fluency and flexibility after reading a narrative poem, while participants who read the non-poetic text showed a decrease in fluency and originality. In Study 2 ( N = 131) reception of conventional, closed metaphorization significantly lowered fluency and flexibility of thinking (compared to reading non-poetic text). The most critical finding was that poetry exposure could either increase or decrease creativity level depending on the type of poetic metaphors and style of poetic narration. Furthermore, results indicate that long-term exposure to poetry is associated with creativity. This interest in poetry can be explained by an ability to immerse oneself in a poetry content (i.e., a type of empathy) and the need for cognitive stimulation. Thus, this paper contributes a new perspective on exposure to poetry in the context of creativity and discusses possible individual differences that may affect how this type of art is received. However, future research is necessary to examine these associations further.

Introduction

Creativity is often understood in different ways. In an elitist view, creativity means eminent works of art created by great, gifted artists. In contrast, creativity has also been described as a common cognitive process, which can be improved ( Finke et al., 1992 ). This more popular approach has been labeled by Csikszentmihalyi (1996) as “little c Creativity." Previous research ( Mednick, 1962 ) has shown that creative thinking is based on flatter concept hierarchies, enabling remote associations to be more easily made. Csikszentmihalyi states that this kind of creativity is part of everyday human life, and can be observed even in young children. This type of “common" creativity results in more efficient problem solving, better performance on tasks measuring creative potential, and can even bring about the production of outstanding works of art. The current research concentrates on “little c Creativity," which can be improved by specific interventions under specific circumstances, and then observed and measured ( Guilford, 1950 ; Finke et al., 1992 ; Runco, 1999 ).

In this article, we examined whether the creative potential of a poem can be beneficial for receivers by testing whether one-time reception of poetry can influence the quality of divergent thinking (DT; i.e., multidirectional and/or potentially creative thinking). Additionally, we investigated if this impact depends on the type of poetic metaphors and/or the style of poetic narration.

There are several studies that have examined how humans produce metaphors ( Paivio, 1979 ; Chiappe and Chiappe, 2007 ; Silvia and Beaty, 2012 ; Beaty and Silvia, 2013 ), but little is known about metaphor comprehension, especially within the context of poetry. This research has inspired many books that attempt to teach the skills necessary to generate imaginative and interesting metaphors (e.g., Plotnik, 2007 ). It may be that the ability to associate remote ideas, facts, and elements of the environment, which is a key factor in metaphor production, may also be a key factor in creativity. Thus, these skills that can be taught to improve metaphorization may also overlap with skills to improve general creative ability.

Most psychological research on poetry has focused on the influence of text structure (i.e., rhythm, rhymes) on emotional reception of poems (e.g., Jakobson, 1960 ; Turner and Pöppel, 1983 ; Lerdahl, 2001 ; Obermeier et al., 2013 ). Additionally, many studies that have focused on poets’ creativity have also collected data revealing links between mental disorders and functioning (e.g., Stirman and Pennebaker, 2001 ; Djikic et al., 2006 ). Further, previous research has also examined the relationship between poetic training and creativity (e.g., Baer, 1996 ; Andonovska-Trajkovska, 2008 ; Cheng et al., 2010 ). However, the current manuscript focuses on the influence of poems as creative products that may affect receivers’ levels of creative thinking. This influence, however, likely depends on the type of poetry received.

The efficiency of DT is a key measure of idea generation (e.g., Baer, 1996 ; Runco, 1999 ; Nęcka, 2012 ). In contrast to convergent thinking, DT enables problem solving in diverse and potentially valuable ways. It often involves redefining the problem, referring to analogies, redirecting one’s thoughts, and breaking barriers in thinking. Previous research has found that spreading activation in the semantic network is indicative of DT ( Martindale, 1989 ; Ashton-James and Chartrand, 2009 ; Kaufman and Beghetto, 2009 ). Developing associations between distant ideas is a basic mechanism of creative thinking ( Mednick, 1962 ). For instance, Benedek et al. (2012) provided evidence that the ability to generate remote associations makes creative problem solving easier. Gilhooly et al. (2007) showed that ignoring close associations (but choosing remote ones) and breaking the stiff, typical relationships between ideas plays a crucial role in effective DT. The current studies are based on the hypothesis that the process of DT can be supported by poetry comprehension.

Poetry, which contains remote associations described through metaphors and analogies, combines non-related notions in atypical ways ( Lakoff and Johnson, 2003 ). In general, metaphoric expression often involves mapping between abstract and more concrete concepts ( Glucksberg, 2001 , 2003 ); therefore, the comprehension of metaphors requires the activation of a broader set of semantic associations. This is due to connecting two remote parts of a metaphor (theme and vehicle) into a meaningful expression ( Paivio, 1979 ; Kenett et al., 2018 ). Poetry reception can involve readiness to notice similarities between remote categories, which can be a crucial ability in generating creative ideas (e.g., Mednick, 1962 ; Koestler, 1964 ; Martindale, 1989 ). Training in metaphorical thinking results in the broadening of categories ( Nęcka and Kubiak, 1989 ), which leads to increased DT ( Trzebiński, 1981 ). Glucksberg et al. (1982) have shown that poetry reading broadens the scope of associations. Metaphor, based on remote associations, provides a new way of understanding reality and human feelings. In addition to fostering multidirectional and creative thinking, metaphor can also help individuals adjust to the surrounding world ( Kolańczyk, 1991 ; Nęcka, 2012 ). Metaphorization is, structurally, the most essential element of the poetic art (e.g., Lakoff and Johnson, 2003 ; Kovecses, 2010 ). Rhythm, syllabification, and word combinations in well-written poetry construct a meaningful whole aside from very remote notions ( Csikszentmihalyi, 1996 ). Thus, poetry comprehension can change readers’ DT; however, this impact likely depends on type of poetic metaphors and the narration used by the poet.

Thinking expressed in metaphors always involves the flexible activation and manipulation of acquired knowledge ( Benedek et al., 2014 ); even though metaphors are not always creative, even in poetry. Understanding a conventional metaphor is not intellectually challenging: comprehending such expressions is based on the retrieval of well-known meaning from memory ( Kenett et al., 2018 ). For example, love can be understood metaphorically as a nutrient. The metaphors “starved for affection” and “given strength by love” are not particularly creative, as they are based on a highly conventional metaphor (i.e., love = nutrient). These metaphors are ostensibly viewed as new by receivers of poetry, although they are not flexible or original. Hausman (1989) writes about two specific types of metaphors; one he describes as impoverished, frozen, and closed; the other, he refers to as original, divergent, and open. It seems logical to use terms like closed/convergent and open/divergent when referring to metaphors, which can emphasize a functional dimension of how these types of metaphors are used in poetry and casual language. To the best of our knowledge, however, previous research has never introduced this distinction in terms of differences between metaphors. Instead, Beaty and Silvia (2013) uses the metaphor labels conventional (i.e., familiar) and creative (i.e., novel).

Until now, no typologies of metaphors have been introduced that highlight differences in how poetry is constructed and how this impacts recipients. It seems that poetry uses at least these two kinds of metaphorization. Both of these can be adaptive for the recipient, because creativity requires both accommodation and assimilation ( Ayman-Nolley, 2010 ). Therefore, recipients’ reception of novel and open metaphors could result in more flexible and original thinking, whereas reception of conventional, well known, and closed metaphors could result in less flexible and less creative problem-solving.

In addition to the types of metaphors used, poetry is also characterized by content. One conceptualization of poetry describes it as a certain type of story, which is a separate and coherent whole, through which people express their thoughts and/or opinions ( Heiden, 2014 ). In this case, the author can bring an abstract idea closer to the reader through narrative imagery. This type of poetry can result in the receiver taking on another’s (i.e., the author’s) point of view, hence improving creativity. Moreover, this narrative type of poetry is an open task for readers, because understanding is reached based on the receiver’s own experience and understanding. The second type, noncreative poetry, is more conservative, and includes variously structured, commonplace (i.e., conventional) metaphors, which are often clichés based on common-sense regularities, and are sometimes the contents of parables or prayers. Metaphors in this type of poetry delineate and conventionalize meaning; they describe the world in ways known to everyone (e.g., Lakoff and Turner, 1989 ; Gibbs, 1994 ; Lakoff and Johnson, 2003 ; Kovecses, 2010 ).

The general goals of this research were to determine whether the reception of poetry stimulates creative thinking, and whether poetry’s impact on creativity varies depending on the type of poetry. Accordingly, we formulated the following research hypotheses:

• simple 1. Reception of an unconventional, open metaphor poem will stimulate the generation of creative ideas (i.e., improves DT from baseline).
• simple 2. Reception of conventional poetry either will not influence, or will negatively influence the generation of creative ideas (i.e., no increase or decrease in DT from baseline).
• simple 3. DT will be increased after the reception of open metaphor poetry, when compared to reading a neutral text.
• simple 4. DT will be decreased after reception of conventional poetry, when compared to a neutral text.

In Study 1, participants were exposed to a poem with narrative imagery expressing an author’s point of view and utilizing open metaphors. In Study 2, participants were exposed to a conventional poem that employed a biographical approach, comprised of commonplace metaphors and aphorisms.

Participants

Participants were recruited from high-school classes. All participants resided in Poland. A total of 107 participants completed the study ( M age = 17.46; SD = 1.03; 53 female). Students from the pool were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Upon entering the lab, participants were given a consent form and a brief explanation of the study procedures. The study was conducted in a group setting, with the number of participants ranging from 10 to 15. Participants provided written, informed consent, and were free to withdraw from the research at any time without giving reason or justification for withdrawing. Minors participated in research with written parental consent. Participants received points for behavior as compensation. Their participation was anonymous. The study was approved by a local ethics committee (clearance number: WKE/S 15/VI/1).

DT Measurement

To measure DT, participants were administered versions of the Question Generation task ( Chybicka, 2001 ). This task was conducted using a test-retest design (to observe creativity change). Participants listed as many questions as they could regarding an unambiguous picture (baseline image from Chybicka, 2001 ; post-test, a comparable version from Corbalan and Lopez, 1992 ). The fluency, flexibility, and the originality of answers were evaluated by three independent judges. Fluency was the total number of meaningful responses given by participant; flexibility (i.e., diversity of categories) was measured as the number of different categories; and originality was calculated as the number of original, novel, and interesting responses.

Poetry—Szymborska’s Poem

In Study 1, we chose Szymborska (2012) poem Utopia as an example of narrative, non-rhythmic poetry. In Utopia , Szymborska creates a sort of plot or story, which she conveys to the reader in a very metaphorical, condensed form. Szymborska’s narration in Utopia is characterized by ethical and metaphysical themes (e.g., “ As if all you can do here is leave and plunge, never to return, into the depths. Into unfathomable life & The Tree of Understanding, dazzlingly straight and simple, sprouts by the spring called Now I Get It” ). Six independent judges, all of which were Polish language teachers, filled in a short scale which contained three questions about affectivity of the chosen poem (e.g., “ the poem is neutral ”). They confirmed that the poem was emotionally stable, allowing for control over the influence of both rhythm and emotion on participants’ creativity.

Control Text

For the control text, we used the description of a cooking device (Speedcook, RPOL, Mielec, Poland). This description approximated the word count of a poem and did not contain any metaphors (e.g., “ Our kitchen appliance has a classic, elegant design. This device could replace every cooking appliance , a steam cooking tool, and a juicer” ). Device descriptions are often made according to the same pattern and in a comparable way. The description that we used contained close, functional associations between concepts. The text is constructed to provide concrete information to the recipient. The device description was obtained from an Internet website ( Wachowicz, 2014 ).

Contact With Poetry Scale

We developed a scale to measure poetry contact that addressed passion, as well as frequency of reading poetry and taking part in poetic meetings. Agreement/disagreement with statements was assessed. Statements included “ I am passionate about poetry,” “ In my free time, I very often read poems,” “ I write poems and share my work with others,” “I have several favorite poets,” “Sometimes, I put down my creative thoughts onto paper,” and “I was once an unpublished writer.” Participants answered the five items on a 5-point scale from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. The reliability of the tool, as measured by internal consistency, was satisfactory (Cronbach’s α = 0.83).

First, participants read introductory information highlighting the importance of their participation in the study and a confidentiality statement (assuring that participants would remain anonymous and encouraging them to answer all questions truthfully). Then, participants received the first version of the Question Generation Task ( Chybicka, 2001 ). Participants wrote questions about a picture printed on a piece of paper for 10 min. Next, participants were randomized into one of two groups: (a) the experimental group, which read the poem; or (b) the control group, which read the cooker description. Participants were instructed to silently read the poem twice, in a calm and attentive manner ( Kraxenberger and Menninghaus, 2016 ). After reading the text, participants answered two questions; one regarding understanding the content (“ I understand the meaning of the text”) and the other an affective estimation of the text (“ In my opinion, the text is pleasant ”). Items were rated on a 6-point scale, with response options ranging from 1 ( strongly disagree ) to 5 ( strongly agree ). Then, participants completed a parallel version of the drawing from the Question Generation Task ( Corbalan and Lopez, 1992 ). Finally, participants completed the devised scale concerning contact with poetry. Duration of the entire procedure was approximately 35 min. After completing the scale, participants were debriefed and thanked for their participation. We also collected postal addresses from participants who were interested in the results.

Data were analyzed using SPSS 24 (IBM, Armonk, NY, United States). The data from all participants were included in analyses and a significance level of p < 0.05 was adopted for all tests.

All three DT indicators were scored by three independent raters. A Kendall’s W of 1.00 was calculated for fluency at both time points; a W of 0.75 and 0.72 for flexibility in the first and the second measurement, respectively; and 0.76 for originality in both measurements ( W greater than 0.70 = good concordance). All indicators were analyzed separately via three repeated-measures analyses of variances (ANOVAs) with effect of measurement (first vs. second) as the within-subjects factor and group (poetry vs. description) as the between-subjects factor.

A 2 × 2 (measurement × group) repeated measures ANOVA for fluency revealed an interaction [ F (1,105) = 12.12, p < 0.001, η 2 = 0.1], but no main effects. Pairwise comparisons showed a significant improvement in fluency scores on the second measurement compared to the first in the poetry group [ t (56) = 2.57, p = 0.013; Cohen’s d = 0.35]. Moreover, the control group differed in fluency across the measurements. Specifically, participants in this group demonstrated significantly lower scores in the second measurement than in the first [ t (52) = 2.44, p = 0.018; Cohen’s d = 0.35]. Extended data are shown in Figure ​ Figure1 1 .

Mean fluency scores in the poetry-reading group and description-reading group in the first and second measurement in Study 1. Error bars: 95% Confidence interval.

A 2 × 2 (measurement × group) repeated measures ANOVA for flexibility also revealed an interaction [ F (1,105) = 10.15, p < 0.01, η 2 = 0.09]. Further, a main effect of measurement was observed [ F (1,105) = 17.52, p < 0.001, η 2 = 0.14]. The second picture of the DT task led to more flexible answers ( M = 4.83, SD = 1.63) than did the first one ( M = 4.25, SD = 1.56). Two-tailed, paired t -tests for two measurements in the poetry group yielded significant differences [ t (56) = 5.47, p = 0.001; Cohen’s d = 0.75]. Extended data are presented in Figure ​ Figure2 2 .

Mean flexibility scores in the poetry-reading group and description-reading group in the first and second measurement in Study 1. Error bars: 95% Confidence interval.

A 2 × 2 (measurement × group) repeated measures ANOVA for originality also revealed an interaction [ F (1,105) = 23.03, p = 0.01, η 2 = 0.18]. Additionally, a main effect of measurement was observed [ F (1,105) = 12.12, p < 0.01, η 2 = 0.11]. The first picture in the creativity test triggered more original answers ( M = 2.85, SD = 1.18) than did the second ( M = 2.34, SD = 1.71). Two-tailed paired t -tests yielded significant differences between the first and the second measurement only in the description group [ t (50) = 5.09, p < 0.001; Cohen’s d = 0.75]. Extended data are shown in Figure ​ Figure3 3 .

Mean originality scores in the poetry-reading group and description-reading group in the first and second measurement in Study 1. Error bars: 95% Confidence interval.

To verify how individual differences in poetic interests are connected to DT, we also performed a linear regression analysis predicting DT on the first measurement (before the manipulation). As expected, flexibility was predicted by the level of poetic interests, F (1,56) = 3.29, p = 0.075, b = 0.24 (a near-significant trend). However, fluency and originality were not predicted by level of poetic interests. Further, no significant predictions were observed for the second measurement of creativity.

Results of the experiment support our hypotheses to a large extent, however, there are some issues that remain to be elucidated. Reading of poetry improved two creativity indicators (fluency and flexibility), while reading of the control (descriptive) text caused a decline in fluency and originality. Although these results are interesting, the question of why reading poetry does not improve originality remains. It is possible that reading this type of poetic narration introduces insufficient changes to the semantic network, so that individuals were unable to improve in the only indicator of product quality (i.e., originality). Additionally, flexibility did not decrease as a result of reading instructions. Likely because the cooker is compared with similar devices, which requires looking at it from different perspectives. Moreover, frequent contact with poetry predicted flexibility. These results suggest that the reception of narrative and open poetry broadens activation of the semantic network and allows for flexible switching between remote categories; however, it is not connected with the creation of very original solutions.

The chosen poem combines both abstract and concrete concepts. The abstract ones (e.g., obvious, understanding ) are explained in concrete or imaginative terms (e.g., valley, tree ), which facilitate a distinct view of reality ( Kirsch and Guthrie, 1984 ). Contact with this kind of poetry can diversify experience, which can lead to increased flexibility ( Ritter et al., 2012 ). Hence, poetry reception may result in diverse idea generation. Flexibility is the ability to use various categories beyond the boundaries of their literal meaning. Many researchers agree that reception of poetry inhibits automatic associations, thereby producing ideas without value ( Kirsch and Guthrie, 1984 ; Halonen, 1995 ). Creative thinking is often connected with breaking typical patterns of thinking and seeing the world in another way ( Amabile, 1996 ), which relates to intellectual risk-taking ( Nickerson, 1999 ).

The lack of change in originality scores may be related to the character of the poem. Utopia is rather calm, balanced, and narrative. As such, it may be able to weaken resistance to seeing things from another point of view (flexibility). In contrast, reception of such a poem may inhibit original idea production until the whole of the poem is understood. Therefore, the reception of this type of poetry may have a buffering effect on intrinsically motivated original ideas. The purification of the dominant influence of the author’s unique perspective is possible in more emotional and cathartic poetry. Thus, increased originality may be more visible after reception of cathartic metaphoric poems, which presents the extraordinary experience of a poet.

Finally, showing that the level of poetic interest predicts flexibility (measured prior to manipulation) is in line with previous research; specifically, that long-term contact with poetry is associated with creative problem solving ( McGovern and Hogshead, 1990 ). As Sternberg and Lubart (1999) claim, people’s interest in poetry can increase creative potential understood as seeing problems in unique ways.

Study 1 showed the positive impact of narrative poetry on DT. Subsequently, Study 2 utilized conventional poetry, with the hypothesis that reception of this type of poetry would not enhance creativity. We wanted also reveal why individuals demonstrate spontaneous contact with poetry, which may be essential for receiving this kind of art, and thus increased performance on tasks requiring DT ability. These elements were empathy (i.e., the tendency to become immersed in the poetry content; Davis, 1983 ), and need for cognition (NFC; construed as willingness to interact with the cognitively demanding text of a poem; Cacioppo and Petty, 1982 ). Poems can be challenging cognitive tasks. As such, understanding a poem requires the creation of complex meaning from specific words and exploration of multifaceted ideas ( Csikszentmihalyi, 1996 ).

We predicted that the variables listed above would be crucial for initial DT levels (i.e., baseline, recorded during the first DT test); but that these individual difference effects would disappear after the manipulation. We also predicted that reception of conventional poetry (and the control text) would lead to a poorer performance on the DT task after its reception.

Participants were recruited from high-school classes. All participants resided in Poland. A total of 131 participants completed the study ( M age = 16.36; SD = 0.71; 84 female). Students from this pool were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Upon entering the lab, participants were given a consent form and a brief explanation of the study procedures. The study was conducted in a group setting, with the number of participants ranging from 10 to 15. Participants provided written, informed consent, and were free to withdraw from the research at any time without giving reason or justification for withdrawing and received course credit as compensation. Minors participated in research with written parental consent. Participants received course credit for participation, and their participation was anonymous. The study was approved by a local ethics committee (clearance number: WKE/S 15/VI/1).

DT measurement protocols for this study were identical to those used in Study 1.

Gustafson’s Poem

Lars Gustafson’s poetry is philosophical; descriptive; and uses well-known metaphors of “life as a machine,” which was very popular in the 20th century. We used the Polish version of Gustafsson (2013) poem, Silence of The World before Bach , which, in a very descriptive way, presents a biography of Bach and the changes in the world connected with his music/art works. It uses commonplace metaphors, which describe the world in well-known ways (e.g., “ Soprano never in helpless love twined round the gentler movements of the flute ”), making it an excellent example of conventional poetry. The chosen poem does not rhyme and is emotionally stable, which was confirmed by three judges, in a manner similar to Study 1.

Gustafson’s Poem Description

For a control text, we created a description of the poem’s content. It approximated the word count of the poem and did not contain any metaphors.

This scale was an extended version of the task created for Study 1, which measures passion for poetry, as well as frequency of poetry reading and taking part in poetic meetings (e.g., “ I am passionate about poetry,” “ In my free time I very often read poems,” and “Poetry is incredibly difficult for me” ). Participants answered the eight items on a 5-point scale from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. The reliability of the tool, as measured by internal consistency, was satisfactory (Cronbach’s α = 0.853).

The Rational Experiential Inventory—NFC (Reflective) Scale

We used the Polish version of the Rational Experiential Inventory (REI; Epstein et al., 1996 ; Shiloh et al., 2002 ). This tool consists of two dimensions: an analytical-rational style of thinking and an intuitive-experimental style of thinking. The REI was devised based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ( Briggs and Myers, 1976 ) and the NFC scale ( Cacioppo and Petty, 1982 ), which defines the type of motivation described by the authors as the need for knowledge cognition. The NFC scale was used to build a rational (reflective) REI scale, opposite of the intuition scale. The most important element of this measure for the current study was the NFC scale. The REI is a 40-item Likert scale with response options ranging from 1 ( strongly disagree ) to 5 ( strongly agree ) The reliability of this tool, as measured by internal consistency, was satisfactory (Cronbach’s α for whole REI = 0.821, α for the NFC scale = 0.743).

Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)—Fantasy Scale

The IRI is a questionnaire addressing empathy. It consists of four scales: Perspective Taking, Fantasy, Empathic Concern, and Personal Distress. In the current study, the Fantasy scale was used. This scale measures the tendency to imaginatively transpose oneself into fictional situations, as well as into the feelings and actions of fictitious characters in books, movies, and plays. This scale consists of 7 items (e.g., “ I really get involved with the feelings of the characters in a novel ,” “ I am usually objective when I watch a movie or play, and I do not often get completely caught up in it ”). The IRI involves a 5-point response option scale ranging from 1 ( strongly disagree ) to 5 ( strongly agree ). The reliability of the Fantasy Scale, as expressed by Cronbach’s α, was 0.682.

Participants first completed the baseline creativity test. Then, participants were randomized into one of two groups; (a) the experimental group that read the poem, and (b) the control group that read the description of its content. Participants read his/her respective documents twice. After the second reading, participants completed the second creativity test and completed the questionnaires listed above, using pen-and-paper procedures. The order of the creativity tests was counterbalanced across participants. After completing the scale, participants were debriefed and thanked for their participation. We also collected postal addresses from participants interested in the results.

Data were analyzed using SPSS 24 (IBM, Armonk, NY, United States). Two participants were excluded from analyses due to lack some data. A significance level of p < 0.05 was adopted for all tests.

All three DT indicators were scored by five independent raters. Kendall’s W = 0.9 for fluency in both measurements; W = 0.78 and 0.72 for flexibility in the first and the second measurement, respectively; and W = 0.7 for originality in both measurements. All indicators were analyzed separately by means of three repeated-measures ANOVAs with effect of measurement (first vs. second) as the within-subjects factor and group (poetry vs. description) as the between-subjects factor.

A 2 × 2 (measurement × group) repeated measures ANOVA conducted for fluency revealed an interaction [ F (1,127) = 11.56, p = 0.01, η 2 = 0.08]. Moreover, we found a main effect of Group [ F (1,127) = 12.35, p = 0.001, η 2 = 0.09]. The poem made people less fluent ( M = 7.41, SD = 0.71) than did the description ( M = 10.93, SD = 0.72). Pairwise comparisons showed that, in the second measurement, the poetry group’s fluency was significantly lower than the fluency of the description group [ t (127) = 4.61, p = 0.001; Cohen’s d = 0.84]. Two-tailed paired t -tests showed that the poetry group demonstrated a significant decrease in scores on the second measurement compared to the first measurement [ t (65) = 2.52, p = 0.014; Cohen’s d = 0.31]. Furthermore, the description group demonstrated better scores on the second measurement than on the first [ t (62) = 2.31, p = 0.024; Cohen’s d = 0.29]. Extended data are shown in Figure ​ Figure4 4 .

Mean fluency scores in the poetry-reading group and description-reading group in the first and second measurement in Study 2. Error bars: 95% Confidence interval.

A 2 × 2 (measurement × group) repeated measures ANOVA for flexibility also revealed an interaction [ F (1,127) = 3.92, p = 0.05, η 2 = 0.03]. Additionally, we found a main effect of group [ F (1,127) = 28.68, p < 0.001, η 2 = 0.18]. The description triggered more flexible answers ( M = 4.11, SD = 0.17) than did the poem ( M = 3.45, SD = 0.17). We also found differences between the first and second measurement of flexibility in both the poetry [ t (65) = 5.64; p = 0.001; Cohen’s d = 0.71] and description groups [ t (62) = 2.21, p = 0.031; Cohen’s d = 0.29]. Two-tailed paired t -tests showed that flexibility of both groups dropped in the second measurement when we compared its level with the first measurement. Furthermore, we found differences between the poetry and the description groups in the second measurement [ t (127) = 4.34, p = 0.001; Cohen’s d = 0.59]. Two t -tests showed that poetry reception resulted in lower flexibility scores than description reception in the second measurement. Extended data are presented in Figure ​ Figure5 5 .

Mean flexibility scores in the poetry-reading group and description-reading group in the first and second measurement in Study 2. Error bars: 95% Confidence interval.

A 2 × 2 (measurement × group) repeated measures ANOVA for originality yielded not significant interactions or main effects.

Next, we conducted linear regression analyses to determine whether the mean frequency of contact with poetry, fantasy (empathy factor), and/or NFC predicted DT scores in the baseline measurement. Analyses showed that frequent contact with poetry positively predicted all parameters of DT [fluency, F (1,127) = 21.49, p < 0.001, R 2 = 0.15, b = 0.38; flexibility, F (1,127) = 23.73, p < 0.001, R 2 = 0,16, b = 0.39; and originality, F (1,127) = 17.94, p < 0.001, R 2 = 0,13, b = 0.35]. Further regression analyses yielded no significant associations between DT and fantasy, or DT and NFC.

We tried to explain the observed behavior—contact with poetry—in psychological terms. To elucidate the impacts of personality predictors on contact with poetry, we performed a single multiple regression analysis. The dependent variable was frequency of contact with poetry and the independent variables were fantasy and NFC. Results showed that the two-variables model was significant: F (2,127) = 10.67, p < 0.001, R 2 = 0.15. Fantasy was a slightly stronger predictor of contact with poetry/passion ( b = 0.26) than was NFC ( b = 0.25). As predicted, we found no significant effects regarding these variables in the second measurement.

We found that contact with conventional, biographical poetry led to decreased indicators of DT. We also observed that people who received this type of poetry demonstrated less fluent and flexible thinking compared with those that read a description of the same information. These results provide support for our hypothesis that idea generation is less likely after reception of narrative-conventional poetry, and that people are less creative after reading this kind of text, when compared to reading a neutral text.

Kovecses (2010) stated that a large body of poetry is constructed in a very conventional way (i.e., based on conceptual, conventional metaphors that are often used in everyday language). Such conventional metaphors (e.g., life is a journey; death is dark), as a part of our cognitive system, allow us to adapt to reality, but do not necessarily stimulate creativity ( Lakoff and Turner, 1989 ). “The idea that metaphor constrains creativity might seem contrary to the widely held belief the metaphor somehow liberates the mind to engage in divergent thinking” ( Gibbs, 1994 , p. 7). Poets create novel, non-conventional poems through cognitive transformations: elaboration, extension, questioning, and combining ( Lakoff and Turner, 1989 ). Therefore, it seems that the biographical, closed, and conventional poetry is also insufficient to stimulate creativity.

Our research confirms that contact with poetry, understood as long-term individual interest (not one-time contact), is associated with readers’ creativity. Accordingly, the results showed that frequent contact with poetry could be explained by individual differences, specifically increased ability to become absorbed in the feelings of characters in a novel, as well as a stronger NFC. We can conclude that the features of the text, as well as the ability to actively perceive the poem, are key factors for appropriate poem reception. Noy and Noy-Sharav (2013) argue that the emotional message of art is always individually perceived. Silvia (2005) , who refers to the appraisal theory of aesthetic emotions, claims that the evaluation of art, and not art itself, arouses emotions. Understanding of a poem requires the ability to actively follow and immerse oneself in the poetry content, which is an essential dimension of empathy ( Davis, 1983 ). Experience suggests that absorption and poetry-elicited empathy should impact positively on the aesthetic evaluation of a poem ( Garrido and Schubert, 2011 ; Taruffi and Koelsch, 2014 ).

Furthermore, curiosity is a key component of emotional motivation ( Hoffman, 2006 ; Silvia, 2005 ). The recipient should be motivated to comprehend the cognitively demanding content of the poem, which is a determinant of NFC (i.e., an individual’s tendency to engage in, and enjoy, effortful cognitive endeavors; Cacioppo and Petty, 1982 ). In general, we conclude that poetry reception favors pro-creativity states only under certain conditions, and that these conditions should be investigated in future studies.

General Discussion

Poets describe their emotions and observations, in the form of metaphorical statements, in an effort to better convey their vision of the world to the reader. In two studies, which were conducted using a test/re-test design, we controlled for the impact of two different types of poems, from two renowned artists, to determine what, if any, impact the reception of poetry has on idea generation. Szymborska’s narration is intellectually intriguing, with a surprising conclusion. Conversely, Gustafson’s narration is a poetic description of the music of a master. The first poet uses open metaphors, while the second conventional ones. We expected, and confirmed to a large extent, that perceiving novel metaphors, based on remote associations (i.e., open metaphors) would result in more creative responses to a problem, whereas reception of well-known metaphors, which reinforce the world view shared by the community (i.e., closed metaphors) would lead to less creative ideas. Even one-time contact with narrative, open poetry improved some aspects of DT. However, we did not observe changes in originality, which is the key indicator of DT efficiency. We attributed this effect to the author’s reasoning, aimed at one, surprising punch line.

Despite limitations in the selection of material, we conclude that poetry could be a useful tool for manipulating DT. Specifically, the results of the current studies suggest that poetry improves creativity if it contains open metaphors. However, reading conventional poetry may actually decrease idea generation. It is likely that the selection of poetic and control texts will remain an open problem for future studies on this topic.

We also accounted in these studies for individual differences that are critical for poetry reception. Frequent contact with poetry is associated with a slightly higher level of DT (compared to a lack of involvement in poetry) and could be explained by higher need for cognition (curiosity) and ability to empathize with poetry content.

Limitations and Future Directions

Although many of our hypotheses about the varied impact of poetry on generating ideas have been confirmed, it became clear that the simple division of metaphors into novel/open and well-known is not enough of a manipulation to affect DT. The narrative structure of the poem introduced limitations to the free and original interpretation of even the most distant, metaphorical associations. Therefore, future studies will seek pro-creative poetry in less structured and more emotional forms of poetic expression, specifically with the development of emotional themes that increase uncertainty and stimulate the reader’s imagination ( Kozielecki, 2007 ).

While we showed that the impact of poetry reading on creative thinking depends on the type of poetry, future studies should manipulate the type of poetry utilized in a single study. Specifically, there are more types of poetry (aside from non-conventional and conventional) that could impact the reader in diverse ways that we did not explore. According to Heiden (2014) , a fictionalized, narrative text can either address one’s understanding of life and a specific challenge found within the individual’s personal story (reference to “I”), or be an interpretation of events in the form of a story in general (referenced as “life at large”). Poetry that focuses on feelings, and disregards coherent narration, can be referred to as “cathartic poetry” (omitted in this research). The aim of cathartic poems is not to bring meaning closer, but rather to evoke the reader’s emotions. This type of poetry is an open task for readers, because everybody can comprehend it according to his or her own experience and understanding. It can support creativity more than narrative poetry used in the Study 1. Thus, it would be desirable to use narrative, cathartic, and conventional poems in one experimental model.

The current studies showed no increase in originality following poetry exposure. Therefore, it is important to conduct future studies to determine what kind of poetry, as well as what kind of cognitive abilities are necessary to achieve an increase in originality, which is the primary metric in DT.

It is also possible that the effects we observed could be due to the specific poems chosen, rather than the content relating to metaphor styles. This issue can be addressed only by choosing several wide-ranging poems, which differ in terms of both metaphorization style and structure. In addition to the well-structured poetry that we used in the current studies, we will choose poems in future research that are emotional and uncertain.

It is important to note that the control texts used in both of our experiments were not rated by the same judges who rated the poems in terms of affectivity and comprehensibility. Thus, we did not control the same possible factors that were neutralized by selecting and rating poems. Future studies should seek to ensure that all pieces used (both poetry and control) are rated. Additionally, the description of the poem’s content that was used as control text in the second study expresses a similar meaning to the poem, but without the use of metaphors. Without rating the content of both texts (poetry and its description), however, we cannot infer their similarity. To address this, a diverse range of texts included in the final collection should be rated by judges in the same manner as poems, both for affectivity and comprehensibility. In this way, the collection would result in several poems, restricted to the best examples of the three different metaphor styles (i.e., narrative, conventional, and cathartic). Further, the personality determinants of poetry receiving in judges and the receivers should be also be controlled.

In the current studies, creativity was more related to general problem solving than production of creative works (e.g., poetry, fictional stories). In future studies, we intend to check the influence of specific types of poetry reading on creating one’s own poems or prose samples. Future research should also explore the underlying mechanism behind how poetry influences creativity. Considering factors like emotions that are a consequence of contact with a poem, as well as individual differences in NFC and empathy, would allow us to construct a model to better describe the impact of poetry on the human mind. Furthermore, we failed to target specific audiences with specific types of poetry, which future studies should attempt. Finally, since the sample comprised high school students it would be difficult to extrapolate the results to a wider population.

Data Availability Statement

Ethics statement.

The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Council of SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty in Sopot, Poland. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants and from the parents of all minors.

Author Contributions

MO and AK equally contributed to the study concept and design. Additionally, MO collected the data, developed the line of argumentation, performed the data analyses, and developed a poetry classification. MO and AK approved the final version of the manuscript for submission.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The reviewer PC and handling Editor declared their shared affiliation at time of review.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank students Katarzyna Rajska, Oskar Wójcik, Katarzyna Gałasińska-Grygorczuk, and Angelika Krause for their help with data collection and creativity rating. We also thank Radosław Sterczynski for his help designing procedures. We would like to thank Editage ( www.editage.com ) for English language editing.

Funding. The preparation of this paper was supported by a grant from National Science Centre, Poland No. 2016/21/N/HS6/2868 awarded to MO.

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Creative Writing Workshop

A middlebury blog, why form poetry.

Heading into this week — when you’re challenged to experiment with form poems — has me thinking about how I always encounter resistance when I incorporate the study of conventional literary poetic forms. Here’s why I think they’re important in the practice of writing poetry:

• There is continuity and dialogue between the traditional & the contemporary. What makes free verse “free” depends on knowing how conventional forms of verse function and evolve and influence the field of poetics across time. What is “free” may be defined as the rupture or subversion of what is not free. To understand our choices in free verse, we must experiment with formal verse, we must inhabit the form to break from it.
• Forms teach us to listen more closely, not only to the conventions of language but to the presence of a specific musicality or metricality inherent also to free verse, for even free verse has its own formal laws as it constructs a soundscape.
• Creating constraints, limits, and formal demands can create freedoms. Instead of focusing on the confinement (or burden?) of a form, think about how you might use it, even if the end result is only a partial adherence to rules (impurities of form are ok, as long as they have purpose). Consider how certain contemporary forms recreate original forms into new shapes (ie. Danez Smith’s “The 17 Year-Old & the Gay Bar” as a sonnet).
• Rhymes don’t have to default to Hallmark poems, but rather can be subtle, internal, hidden, elegant, enhancing the texture of a poem in unexpected ways. If you are anti-rhyme, there are several forms, such as the pantoum, that are really fun and do not contain any rhymes.
• The true success of a form poem occurs when the form is not recognized or obvious (read Addonizio’s form poems), when you are not as a reader aware that you’re within a constrained universe of poetic laws. This is also how you might realize that your poem is at home, in its most organic state. (I once wrote a sonnet, and a professor of mine responded: “The people in your poem don’t want to be in a sonnet. Set them free. ”  This was such a helpful lesson, one I’ve never forgotten when listening to how my poems necessitate their own shapes.) Forms cannot be forced; they must derive from the content and theme and meaning of your poem. (Remember, too, that many forms originate from particular thematic directions: the villanelle is traditionally about loss, the pantoum typically evokes the past, the sonnet is a love poem). Furthermore, a failed sonnet can become a successful free verse poem through revisions, as you deconstruct it out from its original point.

My hope is that you’ll have fun experimenting with forms this week, and that readings of contemporary poets using forms to address modern themes will open your own possibilities for bridging convention and invention.

Feel free to share some of your experiences of writing form poems here, and share the poems themselves…

One thought on “ Why Form Poetry? ”

I used to write only in ballads and limericks and odes and other structured forms, but now found it very difficult to return to that inflexibility for some reason. I just tried three times to write in form and “failed” twice. The first two were list poems (inspired by Parker’s wonderful “If You Are Over Staying Woke”) that I got too carried away with and that ended up being less of a list and more of something else. I still like them but they are not what I was going for originally. I finally succeeded in writing a ballad. Here are the three in the order that I wrote them:

-Ghost Stories-

The night isn’t quite so scary When your eyes adjust And you let your ears hum With cricketsong. The wolves in the dark— They’re not here for you. It’s the ones that hunt When the sun’s rays shroud them In long afternoon shadows That you should be looking for.

The creaks on the staircase Don’t mean the house is going to Fall apart. It will, but the staircase has nothing to do with it.

The wolves won’t Disappear And the house won’t Hold itself together Just because you’re Seven And they should probably wait Until you’re at least eight Before they swallow you whole And spit you out again.

But one day the old wolves Will stop trying to rip you To s h r e d s And you’ll wonder why Until the mirror-ghost catches your eye And you realize They don’t have to.

You’ve done it all on your own.

-Life Hacks for the Waterlogged / Things I Wish I Knew at 15 –

The sky won’t take over Crying for you Every time you feel Like you’ve used up every last drop Of salt and water You have left in you.

But if you let them, Someone else will.

If the cabin pressure drops, An oxygen mask will appear Above your head. Place it over your mouth and nose And pull to tighten.

Remember to fasten your own Before helping others with theirs.

Sometimes “okay” Is just “okay.”

The world won’t wait For you to realize You’re worth more than Apathetic steel and the coppery Scent of something thicker than The watery depths you’re drowning in.

That’s on you.

The Universe won’t throw you A life raft Every time the water Inches past your flared nostrils And over your eyes And over the tips of your flailing fingertips.

It has better things to do Than wait around Until you realize It gave you gills.

The found family you look for With tears in your eyes And twenty long-rusted daggers Sticking out of your damn aorta Won’t wait for you to find them – But you will.

Besides, They’ve been looking for you too.

– Poetry 101 –

So you have to write in form I see you’re getting stuck But in this hour of need I think That you might be in luck.

A ballad’s pretty simple, but Now listen carefully; You should rhyme two and four for sure And maybe one and three.

You might find at first That your rhymes will really suck But with some trial and error And a little bit of luck

You should have something fabulous But if it sounds like muck Channel your frustration And just end with what the

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A Quick Guide to Poetic Forms (And How to Make the Most of Them)

Meter, rhyme, and line breaks are a poet’s playground. Whether writing in free verse or classic couplets, poets use these elements to give a poem shape and structure; this shape is called form. There are countless types of forms poets can choose from (like haikus, sonnets, or prose), and each one can create a special feeling that supports the poem’s content. We can call this “form mirroring content.” 

Take a haiku , for example. This traditional short form of Japanese poetry consists of three lines, first a line of five syllables, then one of seven, then five again. As simple as it is, this minimal structure is perfect for poems that are meant to create a sense of presence, serenity, and pause. “The Old Pond” by Matsuo Bashō is a great example. 

An old silent pond

A frog jumps into the pond—

Splash! Silence again.

On the other hand, a limerick is a short form with an entirely different character. Made up of five lines in an AABBA rhyme scheme, this form creates a light and bouncy mood often found in nursery rhymes. The tale of the man from Nantucket is a classic example of a limerick. 

There once was a man from Nantucket 

Who kept all his cash in a bucket. 

But his daughter, named Nan,

Ran away with a man 

And as for the bucket, Nantucket.

While haikus and limericks have strict forms that guide the writer, there are plenty of forms with fewer rules to play by. Free verse is the most popular example, in which anything goes—but that doesn’t mean form is missing altogether. Poets writing in free verse can often borrow, make, and break rules to create something truly unique. “ I, Too ,” by Langston Hughes is an excellent example of free verse, employing strategic line breaks and carefully crafted stanzas to create a sense of intensity and pain. 

Depending on the content of your poem, some forms may suit it better than others. Feel free to experiment with different forms that either support the theme of your poem or juxtapose it. The important thing is to be intentional. How can meter, rhyme, and line breaks support the words you’ve chosen to write? 

If you’re not sure where to start, here are five forms of poetry to experiment with. Use some as writing exercises or cut and combine others to create something new. Even though form suggests rules, poetic forms are also an opportunity to push your boundaries. 

The Abecedarian

This ancient poetic form uses the alphabet as its guide. Made up of 26 lines or stanzas (for the 26 letters in the English alphabet), each line or stanza begins with a letter of the alphabet, cascading down from A to Z. “ An ABC ” by Geoffrey Chaucer is a great medieval example of an Abecedarian, starting each stanza with a new letter. Since the rules of an Abecedarian only guide the first letter of each line (or stanza), the rest of the poem is open for you to explore using free verse, sonnets, or any other forms you like. 

A Cento is a great form for paying tribute to your favorite poems or poets. Latin for “ patchwork ,” centos are made from lines and phrases from other poems. This form allows for a unique exploration of themes and emotions by combining disparate sources. “ The Waste Land ” by T.S. Eliot is a well-known example of this. 

An ode is a lyrical poem expressing strong emotions or praise. It often has a formal structure and is dedicated to a person or thing. See “ Ode to a Nightingale” by John Keats. Odes are a wonderful vehicle for expressing profound emotions, admiration, or celebration. They often explore themes of beauty, nature, and the human experience.

The Prose Poem

A prose poem is written in prose but maintains poetic qualities such as rhythm and heightened language. It lacks a traditional line structure. “ Bath ” by Amy Lowell is a fitting example. Prose poems work well for exploring complex emotions, introspection, and capturing fleeting moments. They often blend narrative and poetic elements seamlessly.

The Sestina

Perhaps the most intricate of the list, a sestina is a structured poem with six stanzas of six lines each. The end words of the lines in each stanza follow a set pattern. Sestinas are effective for exploring patterns and cyclic themes. They often lend themselves to themes of nostalgia, repetition, and the passage of time. “ Sestina ” by Elizabeth Bishop is an excellent example of this form. 

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Last updated on Oct 13, 2023

12 Elements of Poetry Every Poet Needs to Know

Much like any other type of literature, poetry can be broken down into various different devices. Rhyme is the most well-known, but there are dozens of elements that can be used to construct a poem. While poets may employ many of these devices subconsciously (having long since added them to their toolkit), most of them will be able to identify these elements and understand how they help their craft. 

In this post, let’s explore 12 of the most common poetic devices and what they add to a poem. 

1. Rhyme and rhyme scheme

When we think of poetry, rhyme is probably the first poetic device that comes to mind. From the tales of Mother Goose to the works of the greats, it’s one of the defining characteristics of poetry. Modern poets may not use rhyme as often as their predecessors, but it remains an important part of what makes poetry poetry. 

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What is rhyme in poetry?

It’s the repetition of syllables or similar sounds, typically at the end of a verse. A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes in a poem or, in other words, which lines rhyme with each other. 

Some common rhyme schemes you might see are AAAA, ABAB, ABBA, where two matching letters indicate that those lines rhyme with each other. However, there are many more to be found among the different forms and structures of poetry . 

There are also many different ways in which two words might rhyme. While everyone can detect a full rhyme (e.g., might and light ), you might also find half rhymes or slant rhymes (e.g., bog and bug ) that sound just enough like one another to work. 

There’s also a range of places where you can rhyme within lines or stanzas. End rhyme — the rhyming of the last syllables in two or more lines — is the most common. But there’s also internal rhyme, which occurs when two or more words rhyme within a singular line (e.g., there’s double trouble at the Hubble lab).

Example: “Neither Out Far Nor In Deep” by Robert Frost

Robert Frost’s poem follows a simple ABAB rhyme scheme (italics and bold text added for emphasis). 

The people along the sand  

All turn and look one way .   

They turn their back on the land .

They look at the sea all day .   

Of course, a collection of rhymes does not a poem make. While some poems don’t use any rhyme at all, almost every piece of verse has a keen sense of rhythm.

Meter is the basic structure of a line of poetry, whereby stressed and unstressed syllables are used in a predetermined way to create rhythm. In a sense, it’s the heartbeat of a poem.

How is meter created? 

When considering a poem’s rhythm, you can break a line of poetry into multiple “feet.” These are individual units within a line that have a specific number of syllables with specific emphasis placed on those syllables. 

Metrical feet are usually only two or three syllables long. One of the most common kinds of feet in English is an iamb , which consists of two syllables: one stressed and one unstressed. For example, you would always stress the first syllable of the word “poem” but never the second. (Only a maniac would pronounce it “ po-EM ” instead of “ PO-em .”)

Each line has a set number of feet. For example, in iambic pentameter, which we often see in Shakespeare’s works, there are five iambs per line — this gives us a total of ten syllables per line (e.g., “ A gainst my love shall be as I am now ”).

There are many different types of feet and meters that you can mix and match to create rhythm. Some regularly used ones include iambic pentameter, trochaic octameter, and anapestic tetrameter. Below, you'll find examples of the most common types of poetic feet. 

Example: “Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare

Who better to demonstrate the uses of meter than Shakespeare himself? His sonnets are arguably the popular examples of iambic pentameter in the English language. 

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st, Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st.     So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,     So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Notice how the number of syllables in each line remains consistent, creating a regular beat that propels the sonnet forward. You might also detect that the flow of the words builds up in the first line, then falls in the second line — a pattern that repeats throughout the piece, creating a sense of ebb and flow. That’s iambic pentameter in action. 

In Shakespeare’s plays, he often switches between using iambic pentameter and a more prosaic style. In a very similar way, not all forms of poetry require a standard use of meter.

3. Lineation

Also known as layout, lineation is about how words and sentences are physically arranged on the page. While poetry is often best enjoyed when spoken aloud, it can also be a visual medium — and lineation is a large part of that. How a poet decides to break up a sentence on the page can create pauses that alter its mood, meaning, or rhythm. 

With certain forms like concrete poetry, poets may take full advantage of this visual aspect and arrange the lines in such a way that they form an image on the page. 

Example: “Crepuscule” by E.E. Cummings

E.E. Cummings was well-known for experimenting with different elements of poetry, including lineation. In this piece from 1917, he conjured up an image of twilight that jars the reader with its unusual line breaks. 

I will wade out

                       till my thighs are steeped in burn-

ing flowers

I will take the sun in my mouth

and leap into the ripe air

                                   Alive

                                                           with closed eyes

to dash against darkness

                                   in the sleeping curves of my

Shall enter fingers of smooth mastery

with chasteness of sea-girls

                                         Will I complete the mystery

of my flesh

I will rise

           After a thousand years

           And set my teeth in the silver of the moon

Here, Cummings breaks up the verses and arranges them on the page so that certain words and phrases stand out, like “alive.” The pauses these breaks create add a specific rhythm that would be difficult to achieve with regular enjambment. 

Pulling back for a second, let’s take a wider look at poetry in general and talk about form. Form is the actual structure of a poem and consists of three parts: rhyme scheme, meter, and lineation.

As previously mentioned, rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes while meter is about the use of stressed and unstressed syllables. Meanwhile, lineation refers to the way line breaks and stanzas are arranged — how many lines there are per stanza, for example. Taken together, the variations of these three elements lead to many types of poetry forms , from odes and ballads to villanelles and limericks.

Each form of poetry has its own specific lineation, rhyme scheme, and meter as part of its structure. A sonnet wouldn’t be a sonnet if it wasn’t written in iambic pentameter, nor would a haiku be a haiku if it didn’t follow the 5-7-5 syllable structure. Form makes a poem recognizable, and poets can use rhythms to elicit a particular emotion or reaction from their readers. Certain structures also lend themselves well to particular topics — the ode and the elegy, for example, praise and eulogize their subjects, respectively. 

While all the rules imposed by poetic forms might make poetry seem restrictive, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Many modern poets write in free verse, constructing their own meters and rhyme schemes. Many don’t rhyme at all, relying purely on meter and lineation. Once you know what the rules are, you can break them to make something entirely new. 

Example: “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats

Based on his observations of ancient artifacts he saw at the British Museum, John Keats wrote this poem, dispensing with the odes made popular by Horace and Pindar in favor of a form he developed himself. Keats starts describing a particular Grecian urn with a quatrain (four lines with an ABAB rhyme scheme) that leads to a sestet (six lines with a CDECDE rhyme scheme). Each line of Keats’ poem is rendered in iambic pentameter. The following is the poem’s first stanza:

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,

    Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,

Sylvan historian, who canst thus express

    A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:

What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape

    Of deities or mortals, or of both,

               In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?

    What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?

What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?

               What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?

While form is a foundational part of poetry, don’t let it be a constraint. Like Keats, you don’t have to stick to tradition and can always make up your own form to suit your needs. If you find certain forms too restrictive or can’t get your rhyme scheme to work, always feel free to experiment.

Now that we have some of the basics down, let's look at some other elements poets take into consideration when creating new works. 

5. Point of View

Much like in prose, poems are also told from a specific point of view . In other words, who is the speaker of the poem? Is it the poet themselves, a character, or an omniscient narrator? Is the poem written in first, second, or third person? 

Who tells the story is just as important as how it's told. No two people have the same outlook, so a poem’s point of view will affect its overall meaning. If an old woman and a young boy examined the same event, emotion, or theme, they would likely come to a different conclusion. 

Example: “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Shelley uses an interesting framing device for this poem, where the bulk is told from the viewpoint of a traveler the narrator once met. 

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Rather than telling us about the statue himself, Shelley writes about a story a traveler once told him — or, more likely, a fictional narrator. This story within a story further removes us from this “King of Kings,” reminding us that even the greatest deeds eventually become half-forgotten tales. And this, of course, is the central theme of the poem. 

Speaking of themes, you can’t have a poem without one! Whether you’re writing about what you had for breakfast or the love of your life, poetry thrives on deeper meaning. In other words, a poem’s theme is the message it’s trying to get across. 

Poetry can be about anything: love, death, war, aging, growing up, nature, justice, and so much more. Any possible human experience you can think of has probably been written about in poetic form — even if that experience is just one’s love for breakfast food. 

Example: “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson

Not all poems state their meaning so obviously, but this one by Emily Dickinson states its theme in its opening line. Many poets and scholars consider it to be a powerful poem about life due to how Dickinson describes hope in it.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

Dickinson uses an extended metaphor — that of hope as a feather — to underscore her theme. As the poem progresses, we see the many different faces of hope. By the end, we can imagine hope as a creature that is both delicate and robust, confident and constantly besieged. It’s an incredible metaphor that’s hard to shake once you’ve encountered it — and speaking of metaphors…. 

7. Metaphor

A metaphor is a figure of speech in which two objects or ideas are compared without using “like” or “as” — and relating them directly to each other instead. For example, “hope is a thing with feathers” as opposed to “hope is like a thing with feathers.”

This poetic Swiss Army Knife can be found in just about every corner of the poetry world and can serve many purposes. A good metaphor shows (not tells) an idea without having to explicitly spell it out — plus, it creates imagery and action in the reader’s mind, adding to the mood or atmosphere of a piece. It's also efficient: you could spend pages describing isolation and sadness, or you could find the perfect metaphor like Carson McCullers did for the title of her debut novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.

Example: “Heart” by Dorianne Laux

Speaking of hearts, poets such as Dorianne Laux have imagined the heart as a shapeshifter that morphs to encompass the many emotions a person can experience. Take a look at the following excerpt of her poem, “Heart”:

The heart shifts shape of its own accord—

from bird to ax, from pinwheel

to budded branch. It rolls over in the chest,

a brown bear groggy with winter, skips

like a child at the fair, stopping in the shade

of the fireworks booth, the fat lady's tent,

the corn dog stand. Or the heart

is an empty room where the ghosts of the dead

wait, paging through magazines, licking

their skinless thumbs. One gets up, walks

through a door into a maze of hallways.

Behind one door a roomful of orchids,

behind another, the smell of burned toast.

The rooms go on and on: sewing room

with its squeaky treadle, its bright needles,

room full of file cabinets and torn curtains,

room buzzing with a thousand black flies.

The dizzying amount of imagery in this poem underscores just how changeable a heart, and a person’s emotions, can be. The shift from joyous images of children and birds to the darkness of ghosts and flies allows the reader to experience different moods without ever being told outright what emotions to feel. 

A well-used metaphor will often be repeated throughout a poem, and as we’ll soon discover, repetition is a technique that will pop up time and again in many different ways.  

8. Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of several words (e.g., Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers ). Remember that this literary device is about the repetition of a specific sound, so watch out — just because two words might start with the same letter doesn't mean they’re alliterative. 

A carefully crafted alliterative phrase can affect the beat or rhythm of a poem, slowing its pace down as the reader carefully navigates any tricky repeating consonants. 

Example: “The Tyger” by William Blake

Blake’s oft-quoted poem opens with a verse brimming with alliteration (bold type added for emphasis):  

T yger T yger, b urning b right, 

In the forests of the night; 

What immortal hand or eye, 

Could f rame thy f earful symmetry?

The repetition here evokes the feeling of a chant, setting the tone for the rest of the piece as the poet regards his subject with the awe and reverence usually reserved for the sublime. 

9. Assonance

Remember how we said that rhymes can occur within a line as well as between them? Assonance is a close cousin of those rhymes, where vowel sounds are repeated within a line of poetry. Although it’s often called a rhyme, assonance is more similar to alliteration since it’s about the repetition of a specific sound. The words in a line must be located fairly close together for the repetition of vowels to count as assonance (e.g., The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain ).

Often, assonance is used to invoke a specific mood as specific kinds of vowel sounds can affect how we perceive a poem’s tone. For example, you’ll typically find long vowel sounds in more serious pieces as they slow down the poem, making it more somber. 

Example: “The Bells” by Edgar Allan Poe

Poe opens the second stanza of “The Bells” with a few lines of assonance, using it to set the tone.

Hear the mellow wedding bells,

                 Golden bells!

What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!

        Through the balmy air of night

        How they ring out their delight!

           From the molten-golden notes,

               And all in tune,

           What a liquid ditty floats

    To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats

               On the moon!

Pay attention to the assonance here in the short “e” sounds in “mellow wedding bells.” This gives the beginning of the stanza a light, joyous tone, before shifting to something darker later on in the poem, where you’ll start to see the repetition of longer vowel sounds.

Tone, which is also known as the “mood” of a poem, refers to the poet's attitude toward their subject. Just like human emotions, poems can be happy, sad, regretful, nostalgic, angry, and so much more. How tone is expressed in a poem is varied and depends on the wants of the poet. Elements like rhyme, figurative language, meter, and syntax, just to name a few, can all be used to create a specific tone. 

Example: “A Birthday” by Christina Rossetti

Through repetition and the inclusion of pastoral images, Christina Rossetti creates a joyful tone in this love poem .

My heart is like a singing bird

                  Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;

My heart is like an apple-tree

                  Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;

My heart is like a rainbow shell

                  That paddles in a halcyon sea;

My heart is gladder than all these

                  Because my love is come to me.

Raise me a dais of silk and down;

                  Hang it with vair and purple dyes;

Carve it in doves and pomegranates,

                  And peacocks with a hundred eyes;

Work it in gold and silver grapes,

                  In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;

Because the birthday of my life

                  Is come, my love is come to me.

Images of rainbow shells, singing birds, and endless bounties underscore the narrator’s happiness and excitement now that their love has come to them. Specifically, the way nature is invoked — full of action, not just description — makes it feel like something new and wonderful is blossoming, which adds to the sense that the narrator is professing their love from a mountaintop (or somewhere less clichéd). 

11. Enjambment 

You’ve probably noticed that poetry doesn’t strictly follow the rules of grammar. Sometimes, a sentence will continue past the end of a line without any punctuation marks. This is known 

as enjambment. 

This changes how we would naturally read a line, allowing the poet to manipulate rhythm. Sometimes, enjambment can be used to create emphasis or drama —  cutting off a thought in a strategic place. These pauses and moments of silence might otherwise be difficult to achieve with standard punctuation, so think of enjambment as the poet’s secret semicolon. 

Example: “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks

This classic example of enjambment is short but impactful. Gwendolyn Brooks uses it both to create rhythm and emphasize her point.

We real cool. We

Left school. We

Lurk late. We

Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We

Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We

The enjambment after each “We” creates a pause that puts emphasis on the first words of the next line, suggesting that the narrator is hesitating or perhaps coming up with the next words on the fly. The pauses also create a syncopated rhythm, giving the piece an unusual musicality. 

12. Consonance

Similar to assonance, there is also consonance. But instead of repeating vowel sounds, it’s all about the repetition of consonant sounds within a line of poetry. This can happen at the beginning, middle, or end of the words. Similar to assonance, something can be considered consonance if the repeated syllables are located fairly close to each other.

Much like the other devices we’ve examined here, consonance adds rhythm to a poem and, through the right collection of sounds, can also evoke a specific emotion. 

Example: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot

The consonance in this section of T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” lends a lyrical quality that matches and accentuates the poem’s whimsical mermaid imagery. 

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?

I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves

Combing the white hair of the waves blown back

When the wind blows the water white and black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea

By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown

Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

Note that in the final stanza, the repetition of the aspirated “w” sounds in “white,” “waves,” “wind,” and “water” mimic the rise and fall of ocean waves. And there you have it! Some of the most common elements of poetry.

With the basics down, you can do anything, including writing your own poem . Which is exactly what we'll cover in the next part of this guide.

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Types Of Poetry: A Comprehensive Guide To Different Poetic Forms

Are you tired of reading the same old poetry over and over again? Do you crave something new and innovative? Well, look no further! In this article, we will explore the different types of poetic forms that exist, giving you a comprehensive guide to the world of poetry.

From sonnets to haikus, free verse to villanelles, and odes to elegies, we will cover it all. Not only will we describe each form, but we will also provide examples of famous poets who have utilized these forms in their work.

By the end of this article, you will have a deeper understanding and appreciation for the diversity and creativity that exists within the world of poetry. So, get ready to expand your literary horizons and discover new forms of poetic expression.

Key Takeaways

• There are many different types of poetic forms, including sonnets, haikus, free verse, villanelles, and odes.
• Each poetic form has its own unique structure and rhyme scheme, with some allowing for more experimentation than others.
• Rhyme and repetition are powerful tools in a poet’s toolkit, and can be used to convey meaning and create a mesmerizing effect.
• Odes are a versatile and engaging form of expression and have historical significance in the canon of poetry. They celebrate the beauty of nature and everyday objects and have a powerful emotional impact on readers.

You’re probably wondering what makes sonnets so special, huh?

Well, let me tell you, they have a strict structure and rhyme scheme that sets them apart from other forms of poetry.

A sonnet is a 14-line poem that typically follows one of two rhyme schemes: the Shakespearean or the Petrarchan.

In a Shakespearean sonnet, the first 12 lines are divided into three quatrains, each with its own rhyme scheme, while the final two lines make up a rhyming couplet.

The rhyme scheme for the quatrains is ABAB CDCD EFEF, and the couplet is GG.

On the other hand, a Petrarchan sonnet has an octave (eight lines) followed by a sestet (six lines).

The octave usually follows the rhyme scheme ABBAABBA, while the sestet can follow various rhyme schemes, such as CDECDE or CDCDCD.

Sonnets can explore a variety of themes and variations, including love, nature, mortality, and more.

Overall, sonnets offer a unique poetic form that challenges the writer to adhere to a strict structure while still allowing for creative expression.

Whether you prefer the Shakespearean or Petrarchan rhyme scheme, the sonnet is an excellent choice for those looking to experiment with form and language in their poetry.

So, why not give it a try and see what you can create?

If you’re looking for a brief and elegant form of poetry, have you considered haikus?

Haikus originated in Japan and are known for their simplicity and focus on nature. They consist of three lines, with the first and last lines having five syllables and the middle line having seven syllables.

Despite their brevity, haikus often contain deep symbolism and can evoke powerful emotions in the reader. In modern times, haikus have been adapted to fit different cultures and themes. Some poets have incorporated urban settings or technology into their haikus, while others have experimented with different line lengths and structures.

Despite these adaptations, the heart of a haiku remains the same: a moment of stillness and reflection on the natural world. So if you’re looking for a poetic form that can capture the beauty of nature and the essence of a fleeting moment, give haikus a try.

One of the most liberating aspects of writing poetry is the freedom that comes with using free verse. Unlike other forms of poetry that follow specific rules, free verse allows you to experiment with line breaks and rhythm to create a unique form of expression.

With free verse, you can break away from traditional structures and truly let your creativity flow.

Line breaks are one of the key elements of free verse. Unlike structured forms like sonnets or haikus, free verse allows you to play with the length and placement of your lines. This can create a sense of pause or emphasis that can enhance the meaning of your words.

Rhythm is also important in free verse, as it can set the tone for your poem and help guide the reader through your ideas.

Modern examples of free verse poetry can be found in the works of poets like E.E. Cummings and Langston Hughes, and the evolution of free verse continues to be explored by contemporary poets around the world.

Villanelles

So, you wanna learn about villanelles? Well, let’s start with their origin and structure.

Villanelles originated in France and are structured with 19 lines, divided into five tercets and a concluding quatrain. One of the defining features of a villanelle is its repeating lines, which occur at the end of every tercet and are then used to conclude the final quatrain.

The rhyme scheme is also specific, with the first and third lines of the first tercet rhyming and then alternating in subsequent tercets. Some famous examples of villanelles include ‘Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night’ by Dylan Thomas and ‘The Waking’ by Theodore Roethke.

Now that you know a bit about the form, why not try writing your own villanelle?

Origin and Structure

You can enhance your understanding of poetry by delving into the origin and structure of different poetic forms. This is particularly true for villanelles, which have a rich history and evolution dating back to the Renaissance period.

Originally used as a song form, the villanelle became popular among poets in the 19th and 20th centuries, with notable examples including Dylan Thomas’ ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ and Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘One Art’.

Understanding the importance and relevance of villanelles today is just as crucial as understanding their history. Villanelles are known for their strict structure and repetition, which can be a challenge for modern poets looking to experiment with form and free verse.

However, the villanelle’s structure can also be seen as a creative constraint, forcing poets to think deeply about language and meaning. By learning about the origin and structure of villanelles, you can not only appreciate this poetic form’s rich history but also gain new insights into your own poetic practice.

Repeating Lines and Rhyme Scheme

Repeating lines and a strict rhyme scheme create a mesmerizing and unforgettable effect in villanelles. This poetic form is known for its repetition of two lines throughout the poem, which creates a haunting and hypnotic quality.

But repetition in poetry goes beyond just the villanelle; there are two types of repetition that poets can use to enhance their work: anaphora and epiphora. Anaphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines or clauses, while epiphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive lines or clauses. Both can be used to create rhythm, emphasize key ideas, and evoke emotions in the reader.

The role of rhyme in poetry is not just about making it sound pleasing to the ear; it also plays a crucial role in conveying meaning. Rhyme can create a sense of unity in a poem, tying together different ideas and creating a cohesive whole. It can also be used to create contrast, such as using a rhyme scheme that’s unexpected or jarring to create tension.

Ultimately, repetition and rhyme are powerful tools in a poet’s toolkit, allowing them to create works that are both beautiful and meaningful. By exploring these techniques in your own writing, you can add depth and complexity to your poetry and create works that’s truly unforgettable.

Famous Examples

Famous examples of the mesmerizing and unforgettable effect created by repeating lines and strict rhyme schemes can be found in the works of poets such as Dylan Thomas and Elizabeth Bishop.

Thomas’ poem ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ showcases a villanelle format, with two repeating lines that build up to the final stanza. The strict rhyme scheme and repetition of ‘rage, rage against the dying of the light’ creates a sense of urgency and passion that resonates with readers.

Bishop’s ‘One Art’ is another famous example of the power of repetition and rhyme. The poem follows a strict villanelle format, with repeating lines that explore the theme of loss and acceptance.

The analysis techniques used to examine these poems reveal how the strict structure of repeating lines and rhyme schemes can create a powerful emotional impact on readers. These famous examples also hold historical significance in the canon of poetry, showcasing the evolution of poetic forms and the creative ways in which poets continue to push the boundaries of traditional structures.

Now let’s dive into the world of odes, where you’ll find yourself celebrating the beauty of everyday objects and experiences through poetic language that flows like a gentle breeze on a summer day.

Odes are a form of poetry that originated in ancient Greece, and they’ve evolved over time to become a popular form of expression for poets across the world. In odes, poets often use elevated language to celebrate a particular person, object, or experience, elevating it to the status of a revered subject.

Here are some examples of odes that showcase the versatility of this form of poetry:

• Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats: This ode is an example of a Romantic-era ode, where the poet uses vivid imagery to describe the beauty of nature and the experience of listening to a nightingale’s song. Keats uses rich language and metaphors to convey the sense of wonder and awe he feels when listening to the nightingale’s song.
• Ode to My Socks by Pablo Neruda: This ode is a more contemporary example of the form, where Neruda celebrates the simple joy of putting on a pair of socks. He uses playful language and metaphors to elevate the socks to the status of a cherished possession and to convey the sense of comfort and happiness they bring him.

Whether you’re celebrating the beauty of nature or the joy of everyday objects, odes offer a versatile and engaging form of expression. So why not try your hand at writing an ode of your own, and see where your poetic journey takes you?

So now you’ve learned about sonnets, composed of 14 lines; haikus, requiring only three lines; free verse, allowing maximum creative freedom; villanelles, using a strict rhyme scheme; and odes, written to praise a person or thing.

You may now be feeling inspired to try out these different forms of poetry and see which one speaks to you the most.

Remember, practice makes perfect, so don’t be afraid to experiment with different styles. So, grab a pen and paper, let your creativity flow, and see where your poetic journey takes you!

Recommended Reading...

Muse of poetry: understanding the inspiration behind poetic creation, onomatopoeia in poetry: exploring the use of sound words in poems, play vs screenplay writing: key differences and similarities, poems that rhyme: understanding and writing rhyming poetry.

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The Evolution of Poetry: Exploring Traditional and Modern Forms

Poetry has a rich and diverse history that spans across cultures and centuries. Over time, various forms of poetry have emerged, each with its own set of rules and structures. From traditional forms that adhere to strict meter and rhyme schemes to modern forms that prioritize freedom and experimentation, poetry continues to evolve and adapt to the changing times. In this article, we will explore the evolution of poetry, delving into both traditional and modern forms and examining the influence of technology on this timeless art form.

Traditional Forms of Poetry

The sonnet, with its origins in 14th-century Italy, is a 14-line poem known for its structured rhyme scheme and meter. Sonnets often explore themes of love, beauty, and the passage of time. Notable examples include Shakespeare’s sonnets, which have become iconic in the world of poetry.

Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry consisting of three lines with a 5-7-5 syllable pattern. Haiku traditionally focuses on capturing a moment in nature and evoking a sense of emotion or enlightenment through concise and vivid imagery.

The villanelle is a highly structured form of poetry that consists of 19 lines with a specific pattern of repetition. It often features alternating refrains and a specific rhyme scheme. Dylan Thomas’ “Do not go gentle into that good night” is a renowned example of a villanelle.

Ballads are narrative poems that tell a story, often with a musical quality. They have a distinct rhythm and typically focus on themes of love, tragedy, or folklore. Ballads have been passed down through generations and continue to inspire modern storytelling in poetry.

Odes are poems that express admiration or celebration for a person, object, or concept. They are characterized by their formal structure, elevated language, and heartfelt expression. Famous odes include John Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale” and Pablo Neruda’s “Ode to the Tomato.”

Modern Forms of Poetry

Free verse is a form of poetry that rejects traditional constraints such as rhyme and meter. It allows poets the freedom to experiment with language, rhythm, and structure. Free verse often focuses on conveying emotions and exploring unconventional themes and perspectives.

Concrete Poetry

Concrete poetry combines visual and linguistic elements to create meaning. The arrangement of words and letters on the page becomes an integral part of the poem’s expression. Concrete poetry challenges traditional notions of poetry by blurring the boundaries between language and visual art.

Spoken Word

Spoken word poetry is a performance-based art form that emphasizes the oral delivery of poetry. It often addresses social and political issues, showcasing the power of voice, rhythm, and emotion. Spoken word performances engage audiences through the spoken word artist’s passionate and dynamic delivery.

Prose Poetry

Prose poetry blurs the boundaries between poetry and prose. It combines poetic language and imagery with the narrative and structural elements of prose. Prose poetry allows for a more expansive and fluid expression of ideas and emotions.

Found Poetry

Found poetry involves taking existing texts, such as newspaper articles, advertisements, or even everyday conversations, and rearranging them to create a new poetic composition. Found poetry embraces the idea that poetry can be found in the ordinary and challenges conventional notions of authorship.

The Influence of Technology on Poetry

The digital age has revolutionized the way we create, share, and experience poetry. Social media platforms, blogs, and online communities provide poets with new avenues to reach audiences and receive immediate feedback. The internet has also facilitated the accessibility and preservation of poetry from various cultures and eras, enabling a global exchange of ideas and inspiration.

Blending Traditional and Modern Forms

Many contemporary poets embrace both traditional and modern forms, blending the old with the new. They experiment with structure, language, and themes while drawing inspiration from the rich traditions of poetry. This blending of traditional and modern forms allows for a dynamic and evolving poetic landscape that resonates with diverse audiences.

The Power of Poetry in the Digital Age

Despite the technological advancements, poetry remains a powerful medium for self-expression, emotional exploration, and societal critique. In an era dominated by instant communication and fleeting attention spans, poetry provides a space for introspection, connection, and contemplation. It has the ability to evoke empathy, challenge perspectives, and inspire change.

The evolution of poetry encompasses both traditional and modern forms, each offering unique opportunities for expression and creativity. Whether rooted in centuries-old traditions or pushing the boundaries of language and form, poetry continues to captivate hearts and minds. As we navigate the digital age, the power and relevance of poetry endure, reminding us of the profound impact words can have on our lives and society as a whole.

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Crescent Moon by Lawrence Schimel The moon is shy. You can find her peeking out at the world from the edge of my fingernails. When I cut them the moon slips out, no bigger than a nail clipping as she hangs up there in the sky.

Journeybread Recipe by Lawrence Schimel "Even in the electric kitchen there was the smell of a journey." --Anne Sexton, "Little Red Riding Hood"

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ENGL 2800 Creative Writing

Course description.

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2023-2024 . Courses of Study 2024-2025 is scheduled to publish mid-June.

An introductory course in the theory, practice, and reading of fiction, poetry, and allied forms. Both narrative and verse readings are assigned. Students will learn to savor and practice the craft of poetry and narrative writing, developing techniques that inform both. Some class meetings may feature peer review of student work, and instructors may assign writing exercises or prompts.

When Offered Fall, Spring, Summer.

Prerequisites/Corequisites Prerequisite: completion of a First-Year Writing Seminar (FWS) course.

Distribution Category (ALC-AS, LA-AS) Satisfies Requirement Required for the Creative Writing minor.

Comments ENGL 2800 cannot be counted towards the English major. Students should not take an FWS and ENGL 2800 in the same semester. ENGL 2800 is the prerequisite for 3000-level creative writing courses. This course can be used to fulfill distribution requirements in the humanities for Arts & Sciences and most other colleges.

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3 Credits Stdnt Opt (Letter or S/U grades)

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 3322 ENGL 2800   SEM 103

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• Aug 26 - Dec 9, 2024

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Instruction Mode: In Person

 3323 ENGL 2800   SEM 104

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 3324 ENGL 2800   SEM 105

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Chakrabarty, A

 4550 ENGL 2800   SEM 112

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