Different Types of Poetry.

Poetry has been seen as a way of expression- a creative way of expression in writing. There are many types of poetry that will be covered in this blog, along with examples from poetry writers. 

The main types of poetry are:
Haiku
Couplet
Free Verse
Sonnets
Lyric Poetry
Odes
http://www.types-of-poetry.org.uk/ <== (for more examples of different types of poems)
Examples:
Haiku-

None is travelling
by
Basho (1644-1694)

None is travelling
Here along this way but I,
This autumn evening.
The first day of the year:
thoughts come - and there is loneliness;
the autumn dusk is here.

"Haiku Poetry Type is a Japanese poem composed of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. Haiku poetry originated in the sixteenth century and reflects on some aspect of nature and creates images." (Types-of-Poetry, 2005).

Couplet-

Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
by
William Shakespeare

...Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never write, nor no man ever loved.

"A Couplets is a Stanza of only two lines which usually rhyme. Shakespearean (also called Elizabethan and English) sonnets usually end in a couplet and are a pair of lines that are the same length and usually rhyme and form a complete thought. William Shakespeare makes use of couplets in more complex rhyme schemes" (Types-of-Poetry, 2005). 

Free Verse-

Song of Myself
by
Walt Whitman

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loaf and invite my soul,
I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass

"Free Verse is a form of Poetry composed of either rhymed or unrhymed lines that have no set fixed metrical pattern. The early 20th-century poets were the first to write what they called "free verse" which allowed them to break from the formula and rigidity of traditional poetry. The poetry of Walt Whitman provides many illustrations of Free Verse including his poem "Song of Myself". (Types-of-Poetry, 2005).

Sonnet-

O thou my lovely boy
by
William Shakespeare

O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power
Dost hold Time's fickle glass his fickle hour;
Who hast by waning grown, and therein show'st
Thy lovers withering, as thy sweet self grow'st.

"English (or Shakespearean) sonnets are lyric poems that are 14 lines long falling into three coordinate quatrains and a concluding couplet. Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnets are divided into two quatrains and a six-line sestet." (Types-of-Poetry, 2005).  
Lyric Poetry-

Dying
(aka I heard a fly buzz when I died )
by
Emily Dickinson

I heard a fly buzz when I died;
The stillness round my form
Was like the stillness in the air
Between the heaves of storm.

"Lyric Poetry consists of a poem, such as a sonnet or an ode, that expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet. The term lyric is now commonly referred to as the words to a song. Lyric poetry does not tell a story which portrays characters and actions. The lyric poet addresses the reader directly, portraying his or her own feeling, state of mind, and perceptions" (Types-of-Poetry, 2005).

Odes-

Ode To A Nightingale
by
John Keats

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:

"Odes are long poems which are serious in nature and written to a set structure. John Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and "Ode To A Nightingale" are probably the most famous examples of this type of poem" (Types-of-Poems, 2005).

Other websites with more examples and information on poetry and different types of poems:
1. http://www.westga.edu/~scarter/typesofpoetry.htm 
2. http://www.bestlibrary.org/murray/2008/05/types-of-poetry.html


Photo by: Stephanie Taylor. September 28th, 2009. 'At The Bar.' http://picturespoetryprose.blogspot.com/.