Haiku is an unrhymed form of Japanese verse. It ... - Nichols School

FORMS OF POETRY:
Haiku is an unrhymed form of Japanese verse. It consists of 3 lines. There are 5 syllables in the
first line, seven syllables in the second line, and five syllables in the third line.
The geese flying south
In a row long and V-shaped
Pulling in winter.
(5 syllables)
(7 syllables)
(5 syllables)
-- “Fall” by Sally Andersen
Tanka is another unrhymed form of Japanese verse. Tanka has five lines. The first three lines
are like haiku; the last two lines have seven syllables.
Just out of earshot,
(5 syllables)
the periodic blinking (7)
of a night airplane, (5)
not quite far enough away (7)
to be as close as the stars (7)
-- by Gerald St. Maur
There are other forms of tanka in which the lines are shorter. (The poet is only counting the
accented syllables.)
Fish guts
stain the rowboat’s planks;
by the lake’s edge
a child is throwing stones
into the deep.
-- by Penny Harter
Cinquain has five lines. There are two syllables in the first line, four syllables in the second
line, six in the third line, eight in the fourth line, and two in the fifth line.
Oh, cat
(2 syllables)
are you grinning (4)
curled in the window seat (6)
as sun warms you this December (8)
morning? (2)
-- by Paul B. Janeczko
A quatrain consists of four lines with a rhyme scheme.
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
-- by William Blake

A narrative poem tells an exciting story with a minimum of words. Narrative poems move
quickly, are often dramatic, and have rhythm and rhyme. Narrative poems have setting,
character, plot, and theme (just like a short story).
The Eagle
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
-- Lord Alford Tennyson
Free verse is a poem that has much rhythmic variation, irregular or unusual stanzas, and either
no rhyme or a loose rhyme pattern.
Absolutes
black on white
crow in snow
hunched
wet lump
on brittle branch
remembering warmth
remembering corn
miserable
as life
is
black on white
-- Gustave Keyser