Different types of poems: Before you actually pen down your poem one vital decision has to be made. What types of a poem will you write? Here we are discussing the conventional category your poem will be included in. And there are quite a few that you need to be at-least aware of. Let us start with 'Narrative poems'. In its simplest form it is a poem which is closed to fantasy books in that it has a definite plot, often some dialogue, a setting & a narrator. A traditional form of this type is 'the ballad'. It has a certain rhyme to it so that it can be sung to music. Usually the second line of a ballad rhymes with the fourth one. The quatrain & rhyming couplet are similar. The rhyming couplet has two lines that rhyme sequentially but the quatrain is more often a set of four lines which also rhyme. A good example of a rhyming couplet is Geoffrey Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales'. Another form especially favored by Shakespeare was the Sonnet. It is made up of fourteen lines. Traditionally this meant that it had three quatrains & it ended with a couplet. One of the more interesting types is an 'acrostic poem'. Quite simply, if you read the first letter of each line in this type of poem, it spells out a meaningful word or words. Edgar Allan Poe used this technique in his poem 'Elizabeth'. A limerick has five lines in which the third & fourth line rhymes with each other & so do the rest correspondingly. They are usually used for comic effect. And there is even poetry which does not rhyme at all. It is called 'Free Verse'. It can be said that it follows no rules whether of rhyme scheme, syllabic forms or meter. But sometimes poets decide to keep the rhythmic flow of a fixed meter & consequently patterned syllables, without rhyming the lines of the poem. Such a poem is called a 'Blank verse'. Make a career in Poetry, the ShowFlipper way! Lastly, it is important to remember that you are dealing with one of the most ancient forms of literature. One that bridges those arenas of language between the lyrical & the logical. So do yourself a favor & after you have done your due diligence on the 'scientific' aspects of poetry & the made all the preparations we have outlined; do enjoy the process. For it will last you a lifetime. Here are some words of wisdom from one of the greats:
“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.” - Leonardo da Vinci “