Forms and Structure

Form refers to a blueprint or map for a poem. It may refer to rhyme, meter, content, word pattern, or other rules. Form is hard because it involves rules!

 

You can absolutely invent your own rules and make your own form. But here are four of the most famous forms. There are many more than that! This is just a jumping-off point.

 

Sonnet

 

At this point, almost any 14 line poem will be called a sonnet. You can make up your own mind how you feel about that! But to give you a longer definition, a sonnet is a 14 line poem that develops an idea and (usually) turns that idea over, (usually) ending with a strong finish. I say “usually” because this is a very popular form and there are so many different variations!

 

At the end of the day, a sonnet is about the development of an idea in a small space. The tension between the restriction of the form and the expansive meaning gives the sonnet its magic.

 

The most famous kind of sonnet is a Shakespearean sonnet. That has the 14 lines, with the following rhyme scheme:

 

End-rhyme A

End-rhyme B

End-rhyme A

End rhyme B

End rhyme C

End-rhyme D

End-rhyme C

End-rhyme D

End-rhyme E

End-rhyme F

End rhyme E

End rhyme F

End-rhyme G

End-rhyme G

 

Or, to put it another way, three quatrains and a couplet.

 

A Shakespearean sonnet uses iambic pentameter (see the section on rhythm). This can be tricky, but it’s worth trying!

 

A Shakespearean sonnet also traditionally has a “turn” somewhere between lines 9 and 13. This means a shift in the poem’s tone, meaning, or main idea. This makes sense, as sonnets develop ideas.

 

Finally, since Shakespearean sonnets end with a couplet, they are known for having a strong finish in terms of sound, meaning or ideally both.

 

And maybe most importantly… Shakespeare broke all these rules.

 

Let’s hear from the man himself, with his two most famous sonnets:

 

Sonnet 18: The speaker compares his lover (usually referred to as “The Young Man”) to a beautiful day, and points out the ways his lover is more pleasant. He goes on to say that his lover’s beauty will not fade, because the speaker’s lines of poetry will make him immortal.

 

Sonnet 116: The speaker says that he will not acknowledge any barrier to the marriage of like-minded people. Love isn’t really love if it changes because it sees change, or makes it easy for there to be a removal. Love is constant and fixed, even in the face of time, and even in the face of doom. If that’s not true, the speaker says, he never wrote anything and nobody has ever loved.

Ready to move on from Shakespeare? Here are some more modern examples of a Shakespearean sonnet: Four Sonnets by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

 

Wordsworth uses a different rhyme scheme in The World is Too Much With Us—still 14 lines though.

 

Don’t want to futz with rhyme and meter? Here are Six Unrhymed Sonnets by Pulitzer Prize winner Diane Seuss as inspiration. Very different!

 

Sonnets are a difficult form, but it is a skill worth developing. The sonnet is arguably the most beloved form in English. Have fun with it!

 

Villanelle

 

A villanelle is a French form of 19 lines with a pattern of repeated lines. It goes like this:

 

Refrain 1 (A1)
Line 2 (b)
Refrain 2 (A2)

Line 4 (a)
Line 5 (b)
Refrain 1 (A1)

Line 7 (a)
Line 8 (b)
Refrain 2 (A2)

Line 10 (a)
Line 11 (b)
Refrain 1 (A1)

Line 13 (a)
Line 14 (b)
Refrain 2 (A2)

Line 16 (a)
Line 17 (b)
Refrain 1 (A1)
Refrain 2 (A2)

 

Confusing? “Refrain 1” means a repeated line. “Refrain 2” means another repeated line. The “lines” just mean new lines. The letters “A” and “b” refer to different rhyme sounds.

 

Probably the best way to learn the villanelle form is to look at a villanelle! Here’s Elizabeth Bishop: One Art.

 

And another: Theodore Roethke’s The Waking.

 

And finally, probably the most famous villanelle in English: Dylan Thomas’s Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.

  

Sestina

 

A sestina is famous for its pattern of repeated words. It has 6 stanzas with 6 lines each, and a last stanza of 3 lines. The poet chooses 6 end-words to go at the end of the lines, but the end-words must be used in the following pattern:

 

Stanza one: word 1, word 2, word 3, word 4, word 5, word 6.

Stanza two: 6, 1, 5, 2, 4, 3.

Stanza three: 3, 6, 4, 1, 2, 5.

Stanza four: 5, 3, 2, 6, 1, 4.

Stanza five: 4, 5, 1, 3, 6, 2.

Stanza six: 2, 4, 6, 5, 3, 1.

Final three lines:

Word 2 in the middle of the line, word 5 at the end.

Word 4 in the middle of the line, word 3 at the end.

Word 6 in the middle of the line, word 2 at the end.

 

In addition, try to keep the lines the same length.

 

As with before, it’s easier to see an example:

 

Here is Elizabeth Bishop again with Sestina.

 

Another example: Beautiful Poetry by Camille Guthrie.

 

If you write a sestina, choose your end words with some variety, because you are stuck with them!

 

It might sound funny to say, but sestinas are often easier than both sonnets and villanelles. As long as you keep the guide to the word-map handy, they can be fun and playful… or, of course, tinged with obsession. All that repetition! Give it a shot.

 

Haiku

 

This is a Japanese three-line form with a famous syllable count:

 

Line One: 5 syllables

Line Two: 7 syllables

Line Three: 5 syllables.

 

A haiku does not rhyme. Traditionally, it is about nature and/or a specific moment in time.

 

It’s worth noting that in order to translate from Japanese, the syllable count is often lost. For example, Basho’s haiku 75: Wake, butterfly.

Here are ten examples of Basho’s poetry, HOWEVER, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the translation, as I don’t read the language: Masterpiece of Japanese Culture.

 

In English, Etheridge Knight uses the 5-7-5 syllable structure: Haiku.

 

It’s worth noting that in English, authors don’t always stick to the syllable count either. Here’s Ezra Pound: In a Station of the Metro.

 

I would advise sticking to the 5-7-5 syllable count when you first start writing haiku. It gives an image some structure. But that’s just me! Go out there and go nuts.