Poetic Forms

Question 1

Haiku

Answer 1

A contact form of Japanese poetry written in three lines of five, seven, and five syllables respectively

Question 2

Limerick

Answer 2

A fanciful five line poem with an AABBA rhyme scheme ; the A lines have 3 feet, and a B lines to have 2 feet

Question 3

Ottava rima

Answer 3

An eight line stanza of iambic pentameter and the rhyme scheme ABABABCC

Question 4

Sestina

Answer 4

6 six line stanzas followed by a three line stanza, where the same six words are repeated at the end of the lines in an intricate and predetermined pattern and all six words appear in the final three line stanza

Question 5

Sonnet

Answer 5

A single stanza lyric poem containing 14 lines written an iambic pentameter; in most formulations, sonnets are question and answer poems

Question 6

Italian or Petrarchan sonnet

Answer 6

Problem: octave with the rhyme scheme ABBA ABBA or ABBA CBBC
Solution: setset with the Rhyme scheme CDE CDE or CDC CDC

Question 7

Shakespearean or Elizabethan or English sonnet

Answer 7

Problem: for quatrains with the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF
Solution: a heroic couplet, GG

Question 8

Spenserian sonnet

Answer 8

Problem: four quatrains with the interweaving rhyme scheme ABAB BCBC CDCD
Solution: EE

Question 9

Villanelle

Answer 9

A 19 line poem made up of five tercets and a final quatrain in which all 19 lines carry one of two rhymes; the first and third line are repeated throughout the poem and formed the last two lines of the final quatrain