Categories: Prose

A Beginner’s Guide to Poetic Forms

In honor of National Poetry Month 2009, I offer this simple guide to three of my favorite poetic forms: the haiku, the sonnet, and the terzanelle.

1. Haiku. If you are new to writing poetry, for National Poetry Month 2009, start out with one of the shorter poetic forms: the haiku. Haiku is a poetic form originating in Japan that consists of three simple lines, often written syllabically, with the first and third having either five or ten syllables and the middle line having either seven or fourteen. Since they are so short, word-choice is very important in the haiku poetic form.

“The butterfly is perfuming
It’s wings in the scent
Of the orchid.”

– Haiku by Basho, translated by R.H. Blyth

2. Sonnets. These are perhaps one of the most well-known poetic forms, and are a classic choice to try for National Poetry Month 2009. Sonnets are a rhyming form, and there are a few different varieties, including the Shakespearean sonnet. This poetic form is composed of fourteen lines, divided up into three “quatrains, or sets of four lines, and ending in a “couplet,” or set of two lines. The rhyme scheme for the Shakespearean sonnet is as follows:

abab / cdcd / efef / gg

“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 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.”

– Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare

3. Terzanelle. The adventurous poet can pull out all the stops for National Poetry Month 2009 with a much more complicated form: the terzanelle. Not only does a terzanelle have a rhyme structure, but it has a repeating line pattern. This poetic form is made up of five “tercets,” sets of three lines, and ending in a quatrain. The line and rhyme structure is as follows:

1a 2b 3a / 4b 5c 2b / 6c 7d 5c / 8d 9e 7d / 10e 11f 9e / 12f 1a 11f 3a

“This is the moment when shadows gather
under the elms, the cornices and eaves.
This is the center of thunderweather.

The birds are quiet among these white leaves
where wind stutters, starts, then moves steadily
under the elms, the cornices, and eaves–

these are our voices speaking guardedly
about the sky, of the sheets of lightning
where wind stutters, starts, then moves steadily

into our lungs, across our lips, tightening
our throats. Our eyes are speaking in the dark
about the sky, of the sheets of lightening

that illuminate moments. In the stark
shades we inhibit, there are no words for
our throats. Our eyes are speaking in the dark

of things we cannot say, cannot ignore.
This is the moment when shadows gather,
shades we inhibit. There are no words, for
this is the center of thunderweather.”

– “Terzanelle in Thunderweather,” by Lewis Turco

Once you’ve tried haiku, sonnets and terzanelles, you can expand your reading list to include sestinas, villanelles, and even blank verse poetic forms. Let National Poetry Month 2009 open up the wonderful world of poetry reading – and writing – for you.