100 Poetry Forms to Prepare You for NaPoWriMo or Poem a Day Challenges
National Poetry Month Is Nearly Here
If you told me I would be writing poetry during my personal WriteMarch challenge, I would have balked. I haven’t intentionally read or written poetry since I was a young student. With my 22nd post, I’m not only writing about poetry, but I’ve now done haiku, tanka, and blackout poetry. Perhaps poetry is tapping into a calmness I need during corona-chaos.
When I discovered tanka, I also learned of another haiku cousin called lune. I ended up going down a poetry rabbit hole and found out that April is National Poetry Month. Two poetry challenges during that month include NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Writing Month, inspired by November’s NaNoWriMo, and Robert Lee Brewer’s April PAD Challenge.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer’s Digest and also posted an incredible list of 100 poetic forms which astounded this poetry newbie. I’ve copied the list in its full state to make it easy to peruse, but highly recommend visiting Writer’s Digest and the links.
Abstract (or Sound) Poetry. Abstract was a term used by Dame Edith Sitwell.
Acrostic. A form for hidden messages.
Ae Freislighe. Irish quatrain with intense rhyme scheme.
Alphabet Poetry. Perfect back-to-school poetry.
Anagrammatic Poetry. More fun with letters.
Awdl Gywydd. Welsh quatrain with end and internal rhymes.
Blackout Poems. Making poems from articles.
The Blitz. 50-liner invented by Robert Keim.
The Bop. Three stanzas and three refrains, developed by Afaa Michael Weaver.
Bref Double. French quatorzain.
Byr a Thoddaid Poems. Welsh quatrain.
Cascade. Variable length form invented by Udit Bhatia.
Catena Rondo. Interlinked quatrain form developed by Robin Skelton.
Chanso. Five to six stanzas with an envoy.
Chant. If it works once, run it into the ground.
Cinquain. Popular five-liner.
Clogyrnach. 6-line Welsh form.
Concrete Poems. Shapely poetry.
Contrapuntal Poems. Independent poems that get intertwined.
Curtal Sonnet. 11-line sonnet invented by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
Cyrch A Chwta. 8-line Welsh form with 7 syllables per line.
Cywydd Llosgyrnog. 6-liner with internal rhymes and variable syllables.
Decima. Various versions of 10-line forms.
Descort. French form that makes each line special.
Diminishing Verse. Poems that disappear one letter per line.
Dizain. French 10×10 form.
Dodoitsu. 4-line Japanese form.
Echo Verse. A poem that repeats itself (self).
Elegy. Song of sorrow or mourning.
Epitaphs. Or tombstone poetics.
Erasure Poems. Like blackout poems, but without the markers.
The Fib. Fun form from Gregory K. Pincus.
Found Poetry. Finders keepers, right?
Ghazal. Couplets and a refrain.
Glose (or Glosa). 40-line poem based off an epigraph.
Gogyohka. 5-line poem developed by Enta Kusakabe.
Golden Shovel. Terrance Hayes-invented, Gwendolyn Brooks-inspired.
Gwawdodyn. Welsh poetic form.
Haibun. Japanese form popularized by Matsuo Basho.
Haiku. Popular Japanese form.
Haiku Sonnet. 4 haiku and a couplet.
Hay(na)ku. Eileen Tabios form with 3 lines, 6 words.
Hir a Thoddaid. 6 lines that mostly all share the same rhyme.
Huitain. French 8-liner with an ababbcbc rhyme scheme.
Imayo. 4-line Japanese poem with a pause in the middle of each line.
Interlocking Rubaiyat. Used by Omar Khayyam, Robert Frost, and many others.
Katauta Poems. Haiku (or senryu) for lovers.
Kimo. Israeli version of haiku.
Kyrielle. Adjustable French form.
Lai. Nine-liner from the French.
Landay. Poem comprised of self-contained couplets.
Limerick. 5 lines and naughty rhymes.
List Poem. Poetry at the grocery store.
Luc Bat. Vietnamese “6–8” form.
Lune. Robert Kelly invention, also known as American haiku.
Madrigal. Learn both the Italian and English versions.
Magic 9. The “abacadaba” 9-line rhyme scheme.
Minute Poem. 3 quatrains and a simple rhyme scheme.
Mondo. Brief collaborative Q&A poem.
Monotetra. Quatrain madness developed by Michael Walker.
Nonet. Nine-line countdown poem.
Ode. Praise poetry!
Ottava Rima. ABC rhymes in 8 lines.
Ovillejo Poems. 10-liner popularized by Miguel de Cervantes.
Palindrome (or Mirror Poetry). Reflective poetic form.
Pantoum. The repetitive form from Malay.
Paradelle. Silly and/or psycho form from Billy Collins.
Prose. Just when you thought poetry was defined by line breaks.
Qasida. Guest post by Ren Powell.
Quatern. French 4×4 form.
Rannaigheact Mhor. Irish form that fits a lot of rules into 28 syllables.
Rhupunt. Welsh form that offers variability and rigidity simultaneously.
Rimas Dissolutas. Old French form that rhymes and doesn’t rhyme.
Rispetto. Italian poetic form.
Rondeau. 15 lines, 3 stanzas, and a lot of rhymes.
Rondel. 13 lines in 3 stanzas.
Rondine. 12-liner with a refrain.
The Roundabout. Form from Sara Diane Doyle and David Edwards.
Roundelay. Simple lyric poem that uses a refrain.
Seguidilla. Spanish 7-liner that began as a dance song.
Senryu. What many people consider haiku.
Sestina. The form poets either love or hate.
Shadorma. Spanish 6-liner.
Sijo. Korean poetic form.
Skeltonic Verse. “Tumbling verse” named after originator, John Skelton.
Somonka. Japanese collaborative form.
Sonnet. Shakespeare’s 14-line fave.
Strambotto. Hendecasyllabic octave with abababab rhyme scheme.
Tanka. Kinda like a haiku plus a couplet.
Tautogram. Poem in which all words start with the same letter.
Terzanelle. What happens when the terza rima and villanelle combine.
Than-bauk. Burmese descending rhyme tercet (or linked verse).
Trenta-Sei. 36-liner invented by John Ciardi.
Treochair. Alliterative tercets that rhyme with variable 3/7/7 lines.
Tricubes. 3 stanzas by 3 lines by 3 syllables.
Trimeric. 13-line form invented by Charles A. Stone.
Triolet. 8-line French form.
Triversen. William Carlos Williams invention: six tercets.
Villanelle. Five tercets and a quatrain.
Zappai. Just another 3-liner form.
Maybe I’ll continue to explore poetry in April, using a new daily writing challenge to do so. With 100 poetry forms to choose from, I won’t be bored!
This post is part of my WriteMarch series, a commitment to write daily for a month.
