Poetry forms help re-form a poem as you revise

Poems, like people, come in a variety of sizes, lengths, and styles, so a form that fits one poem may not suit another.

With the poem itself to guide your choice of options, consider these common poetic forms, not necessarily as you write but as you revise:

Free verse – Free of all patterns of rhyme, rhythm, or design

The definition may seem obvious, and yet “Free verse” labeled an entry for the poetry contest I judge each year even though rhyming words ended every other line. You can scatter random rhymes in free verse if you like, but a fixed pattern or a regular design or the constant confines of rhyme and rhythm will not let a poem be free enough to be free verse.

Syllabic verse – Pattern designed with X number of syllables per line

Traditional haiku, for example, counts on five syllables for the first line, seven for the second, and five for the third. So the formula for this ancient but ever-popular three-line poem may be shown as 5/7/5. For modern examples of a variety of syllabic verse patterns set in English by an American poet, look for the collected works of Marianne Moore.

Accentual verse – Poems with X number of beats or accents per line

For this poetic option, study Old English poetry in particular. Generally speaking, accentual verse has the same number of beats per line, regardless of the number of syllables.

Accentual syllabic verse – Often known as metered or traditional poetry

This type of poem counts both accents and syllables, grouped into little units known as “feet.” With the iamb as the foot most often used to measure each line, other common feet of accentual syllabic verse include the trochee, spondee, anapest, and dactyl.

Easily found on the Internet, examples of this popular verse form range from 16th century poems by Shakespeare to the traditional poetry by contemporary poet, Richard Wilbur.

For more information about traditional verse, see previous articles on The Poetry Editor blog, such as “Scan a poem. Catch the beat. Change the rhythm as you revise” and “Scan A Poem. Get The Picture.”

To study and practice writing the forms mentioned above, order the book version of the poetry correspondence course I wrote and used for years in working with students, Poetry: Taking Its Course. If you would like my one-on-one feedback on the practice assignments you do at the end of each chapter or a critique for any number of poems, see relevant info and reasonable pricing on The Poetry Editor website.

Righting haiku and writing syllabic verse

Writing poems usually means letting the lines flow onto a page or into a computer then going back later to revise. At that point, it usually helps to read your work aloud, listen to the poem, hear the form that seems to suit it best, then recast the words or lines until you have lively line breaks in a free verse poem or the formal form found in a heavily structured pattern such as a traditional sonnet, limerick, or villanelle.

You can revise or rework a poem to get haiku and other types of syllabic poetry too. More likely though, a poem that’s based on the number of syllables per line will start, not as you tap your foot or count feet into lines of regular meter, but as you count each syllable on your fingertips.

Take haiku, for example. To write those three lines of traditional Asian verse, you need 5 syllables on the first line, 7 on the second, and 5 on the third. Traditionally, you need to refer to some season of the year, too, touching your pen lightly to the scene you sketch, quickly and exquisitely, with your words.

Knowing the background of any type of poetry can help you to write or revise well. For instance, haiku comes from ancient cultures that developed the form as a means of entertainment at social events, so a traditionally written haiku often has the levity found in party talk.

Assuming you do not readily read Japanese or Chinese poems in their original languages, your introduction to haiku will probably come through one of the excellent translations found, many centuries later, in most bookstores today. This means, however, that poems translated from one language to another will vary in the original syllabic count. So an English version of an ancient poem, say, by Basho might have 2/4/2 syllables on their respective lines, rather than the 5/7/5 syllables the poet initially used.

Over the years, poets who write in English have varied the count of syllables and the number of lines, omitted seasonal references, handled hot and heavy subjects, and called it haiku, when they really have their own innovative verse set as a short syllabic poem. What you do is up to you, of course, and also the editors of journals or e-zines where you plan to send your haiku in hopes of getting published. Personally, though, I prefer the original 5/7/5 form because of the appealing pattern but also because, when I write haiku regularly, the words and thoughts just seem to fall into that mathematic formula or sound.

Actually, the same can be said for writing in traditional English forms that rely on, say, iambic pentameter. After a while, the lines seem to slip into your thoughts, already shaped into your chosen meter.

You can find out more about formal and informal poetic possibilities in the book Poetry: Taking Its Course. Also, if you’re interested in hearing more about a specific form on this blog, vote for your preference in the poll posted on the right-hand side of this page.

But what about your own poems? Are your revisions going well, or do you need professional help in sorting out the strengths and flaws, objectively?

To get a thorough reading and professional opinion of your poems or revisions, look for information about your specific needs and the minimal pricing shown on The Poetry Editor website. Be aware, though, that a request to “take a quick look” at poems for free comes up every week from all over the world, so please do not even ask! The answer will be no – or a quick delete with no apology.

Every professional in every profession requires a professional fee for a professional service, and just to be clear, there is honestly no such thing as “taking a quick peek” at anyone’s work, but, especially, not yours – not if you’re here, reading this and sincerely wanting to learn more about poetry.

Reading poems takes time. Taking poetry seriously takes more. But taking all you have learned and bringing all you know into your reading of the unique poems of a unique poet – well, that is not quick, nor free.

For no charge whatsoever, though, you can subscribe to The Poetry Editor blog and suggest the discussion topics that really, really matter to you the most. Also, give your encouraging feedback in the Comments below. Investigate any ads that interest you, and tell your poet-writer friends about The Poetry Editor blog and website. Doing this helps all of us to have the opportunity to continue talking here about poetry.