Form in Action

Types of Poetry
A working understanding of poetic genres—types of poems—helps you become a better reader and writer.

The same is true of all art forms. For example, a working understanding of the difference between a documentary, an independent film, and a Hollywood summer blockbuster helps you become a better audience member and filmmaker.
Types of Film

Types of Music
Or, if you are a songwriter, you want a working knowledge of the differences between the genre/types of music we call rock, pop, rap, alternative, and hip-hop so that you can think how you want to write and arrange your songs—and how your audience might respond.
And as an audience member, you know which sections of the record store are your favorites because those sections themselves are organized according to genres/types of music.

Try this assignment:

1. Genre (Type of Poem):

Click the link under "Genre (Type of Poem)" for a basic understanding of each genre.

2. Keywords or Phrases:

Come back to this page. Copy and past the keywords (or key phrases) for each genre to one of the major search engines. If you need help finding search engines, click here to go to our class search engines page.

3. Examples from Our Syllabus:

In a one-paragraph posting to our Class Web Discussion Group, explain how at least two of the key words (or key phrases) contribute to a greater understanding of one of the example poems from our syllabus in the third column.

Genre
(Type of Poem) Keywords
or Phrases Examples from
Our Syllabus

Ballad song
quatrain

oracy
Anyonymous, "The Unquiet Grave"
Brooks, "The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till"

Sonnet shakespearean
petrarchan

dialectic

argument
Milton, "When I Consider How My Light Is Spent"
Wordsworth, "Scorn Not the Sonnet" and "London, 1802"

Shelley, "England in 1819"

Keats, "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer"

Shakespeare, sonnet 18, sonnet 129, sonnet 130,

Frost, "Design"

Hopkins "Pied Beauty"

Villanelle refrain
song

troubadour

repetition

circularity
The first section of Dove, "Parsley"
Bishop, "One Art"

Thomas, "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"

The Elegy eulogy
memorial

monument
Auden, "In Memory of W. B. Yeats"
O'Hara, "The Day Lady Died"

The Ode horatian
pindaric

commemoration

monument

oration
Keats, "Ode to Psyche," "Ode to a Nightingale," "Ode on Melancholy," "Ode on a Grecian Urn," and "To Autumn"
Shelley, "Ode to the West Wind"

Tate, "Ode to the Confederate Dead"

The Sestina repetition
circularity

refrain
Hecht, "The Book of Yolek"
Ashbery, "The Painter"

The Dramatic Monologue soliloquy
eavesdropping

unintentional revelation
Browning, "My Last Duchess"
Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

Ai, "Riot Act, April 29, 1992" and "Hoover, Edgar J."

Genre (Type of Poem)	Keywords or Phrases	Examples from Our Syllabus
Ballad	song quatrain oracy	Anyonymous, "The Unquiet Grave" Brooks, "The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till"
Sonnet	shakespearean petrarchan dialectic argument	Milton, "When I Consider How My Light Is Spent" Wordsworth, "Scorn Not the Sonnet" and "London, 1802" Shelley, "England in 1819" Keats, "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" Shakespeare, sonnet 18, sonnet 129, sonnet 130, Frost, "Design" Hopkins "Pied Beauty"
Villanelle	refrain song troubadour repetition circularity	The first section of Dove, "Parsley" Bishop, "One Art" Thomas, "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"
The Elegy	eulogy memorial monument	Auden, "In Memory of W. B. Yeats" O'Hara, "The Day Lady Died"
The Ode	horatian pindaric commemoration monument oration	Keats, "Ode to Psyche," "Ode to a Nightingale," "Ode on Melancholy," "Ode on a Grecian Urn," and "To Autumn" Shelley, "Ode to the West Wind" Tate, "Ode to the Confederate Dead"
The Sestina	repetition circularity refrain	Hecht, "The Book of Yolek" Ashbery, "The Painter"
The Dramatic Monologue	soliloquy eavesdropping unintentional revelation	Browning, "My Last Duchess" Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" Ai, "Riot Act, April 29, 1992" and "Hoover, Edgar J."

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Last modified October 8, 2002