poetry: form

Question 1

ballad

Answer 1

Ballads are public poems.
Ballad is a narrative poem traditionally set to music and passed down orally. It is comprised of multiple 4-line stanzas (quatrains) that follow either an ABCB or ABAB rhyme scheme. The first and third lines contain four beats of stressed and unstressed syllables (iambic tetrameter), while lines two and four contain three beats of stressed and unstressed syllables (iambic trimeter).

Question 2

blank verse

Answer 2

poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameters. It doesn’t have rhyme at the end of the line.
It’s suitable for exploring thoughts and feelings and has become the standard form for serious writing about important subjects.

Question 3

elegy

Answer 3

In an elegy, the poet or speaker expresses grief due to a loss of some kind. Elegies consist of multiple quatrains written in iambic pentameter with an ABAB rhyme scheme.

Question 4

epic

Answer 4

a narrative typically the length of a novel. These poems focus on characters with extraordinary abilities who commit themselves to a journey.

Question 5

free verse

Answer 5

verse which observes no regular line length, rhythm or stanza form. It follows the natural rhythms of speech. It’s often characterised by alliterative clusters and local rhythmical patterns, It’s sometimes called vers libre.

Question 6

haiku

Answer 6

Originally a Japanese form of poetry, haikus traditionally contain three lines with a 5-7-5 syllable pattern. The subject matter of these short poems classically revolved around nature.

Question 7

limerick

Answer 7

a short, humorous, and trivial poem. They consist of a 5-line stanza written in an AABA rhyme scheme. Lines one, two, and five contain three beats of two unstressed syllables and one stressed syllable (anapestic trimeter), while lines three and four contain three beats of two unstressed syllables and one stressed syllable (anapestic dimeter).

Question 8

ode

Answer 8

In an ode, the poet or speaker pays tribute to a person, place, object, or idea. Poets usually incorporate a rhyme scheme and rhythm throughout the ode; however, there is no requirement regarding which they use, often creating a unique structure. Odes are one of the oldest forms of poetry, developed in ancient Greece.

Question 9

villanelle

Answer 9

A poem with 19 lines, consisting of 5 tercets and a final quatrain.

a verse form (usually of five stanzas) of three-line stanzas in which the first and third line of the first stanza appear alternately at the close of each following stanza until they form a couplet at the end. The last stanza is usually a quatrain.
The rhyme scheme calls for those repeating lines to rhyme, and for the second line of every tercet to rhyme. The villanelle uses a rhyme scheme of ABA for their tercets, and ABAA for the quatrain

The function of the repetition often can seem a bit obsessive, and, indeed, many villanelles centre around a central issue a poet is trying to work out in a manner that sounds circular and obsessive.

Question 10

the couplet

Answer 10

two consecutive rhyming lines

Question 11

heroic couplets

Answer 11

two lines of rhyming iambic pentameters

Question 12

iambic pentameter

Answer 12

lines of ten syllables with a heavier stress falling on the even syllables

Question 13

the tercet

Answer 13

a three-line stanza

Question 14

a quatrain

Answer 14

a four-line stanza. It’s popular, being used in ballads and lyrical verse. Usually has rhyme schemes of AAAA, AABB, ABBA, or ABAB

Question 15

petrarchan/italian sonnet

Answer 15

a sonnet that has an 8-line section(octave) followed by a 6-line one (sestet). In this sonnet, the poet explores ideas or experiences in the octave and then comes to a conclusion in the sestet. Sestets often begin: ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘for’, ‘if’, ‘then’, or ‘thus’.

Question 16

shakespearian/english sonnet

Answer 16

a sonnet consisting of three quatrains concluded by a closed couplet. Uses ABAB rhyme scheme.

Can present the stages of an argument or elaborate a single idea. In both cases, the closing couplet is important for either confirming or countering the argument.

Question 17

sonnets

Answer 17

have fourteen lines

Question 18

mechanical form

Answer 18

strict adherence to a form

Question 19

organic form

Answer 19

the way some poets allow thoughts and feelings to mould and alter the form

Question 20

syllabics

Answer 20

lines that have the same number of syllables but not regular metrical patterns

Question 21

closed form

Answer 21

there’s a precise description of how long the poem form is going to be

Question 22

open form

Answer 22

forms that aren’t limited to a certain length, e.g. ballads, odes, dramatic monologues

Question 23

blank sonnet

Answer 23

a sonnet where no line rhymes

Question 24

monorhyme

Answer 24

when every line rhymes with every other line: there’s just one rhyme all the way through. The rhyme is aaaa

Question 25

closed couplet

Answer 25

A stanza of 2 lines, usually rhyming

Question 26

terza rima

Answer 26

When a poem has tercets that have a rhyme scheme of ABA, then BCB, then CDC and so forth

Question 27

cinquain/quintain

Answer 27

a stanza of five lines

Question 28

sestain or sestet

Answer 28

a stanza of 6 lines

Question 29

octave

Answer 29

A stanza of 8 lines in iambic pentameter or hendecasyllables, usually with the rhyme scheme ABBA ABBA

Question 30

sestina

Answer 30

A poem with 6 stanzas of 6 lines each, ending with a final 7th stanza of 3 lines. While there is no rhyme scheme, the unity in a sestina comes from the fact that the final words at the end of the first 6 lines of the poem continue to end the lines in the rest of the poem in a fixed pattern.

Question 31

cross-rhyme

Answer 31

a quatrain with an abab rhyme

Question 32

envelope-rhyme

Answer 32

a quatrain with an abba rhyme

Question 33

clerihew

Answer 33

a variety of aabb (just a couple of couplets)

Question 34

elegaic/ heroic quatrain

Answer 34

a quatrain with rhyme xaxa in iambic pentameter

Question 35

rubai

Answer 35

a quatrain with the rhyme aaxa

Question 36

burns stanza

Answer 36

a sestet with rhyme aaabab- the a lines each having 4 feet and the b lines 2.

Question 37

septet

Answer 37

a 7-line stanza

Question 38

rhyme royal/ Troilus stanza

Answer 38

a septet which uses the scheme ababbcc, the lines having 10 syllables each i.e. (usually) iambic pentameter.

Question 39

ottava rima

Answer 39

an octave that rhymes abababcc, the lines being of either 10 or 11 syllables (i.e. iambic pentameter, sometimes with an extra syllable).

Question 40

ballade stanza

Answer 40

an octave that rhymes ababbcbc

Question 41

huitain

Answer 41

an octave that uses either ababbcbc or abbaacac, with either 8-syllable or 10-syllable lines, and is usually (but not always) a complete poem in its own right.

Question 42

Sicilian octave

Answer 42

an octave that rhymes abababab, the lines being 10 or 11 syllables

Question 43

Spenserian stanza

Answer 43

a 9-line stanza which rhymes ababbcbcc, the first 8 lines being pentameters and the last a hexameter or alexandrine.

Question 44

accentual-syllabic

Answer 44

the foot stopping rhythm of poetry, e.g. the dum-dee-dum of a line

Question 45

hymn metre

Answer 45

a poem that draws on hymns, following their rhythm (and/or content matter?)