Poetic Forms Flashcards
Parody
A comic imitation of a serious work
A humorous imitation of someone else’s writing style.
Satire
A work that exposes the follies and weaknesses of a person or an institution (via ridicule) which is designed to bring about reform.
Lyric
A short poem that expresses an intense personal feeling, emotion or attitude about or towards some topic or idea.
Often about love, a person, a place, a memory or something that the poet hopes will happen.
Ode
a relatively long lyric poem, with serious subject, an elevated style, and an elaborate stanza pattern.
Often praises people, the arts of music and poetry, natural scenes, or abstract concepts.
Elegy
A lyric poem of a mournful nature written about someone’s death or lamenting the mutability of life.
Structurally similar to a ballad.
Limerick
a funny five-line story told in the verse that has a particular patter of rhyme scheme “aabba.” The 1st, 2nd and 5th lines are trimeter. The 3rd and 4th are dimeter
Ballad
A relatively short narrative poem, written to be sung, with simple and dramatic action.
Usually contain perfect rhyme and meter.
Sonnet
A 14-line poem made up of three quatrains followed by a rhyming couplet usually write in iambic pentameter and on one of five serious topics - love/beauty, war, death, discoveries/exploration, and nature
Epic
A long, narrative poem that is generally about the deeds of a heroic figure.
Narrative
Poetry that narrates a story.
The product of oral story-telling traditions.
Free Verse
Poems that do not rhyme and do not have a regular rhythm.
Blank Verse
Poetry that does not rhyme but is written in regular iambic pentameter.
Haiku
A poem that expresses simple and contrasting images, often of nature.
Written in three lines with five, seven and five syllables.
Didactic
A form of poem in which the intention is to teach some lesson or moral to the reader.
Often it makes a critical statement about society and exposes a weakness, vice, problem or hypocrisy.
