Download What is an Acrostic Poem? An acrostic poem is a type of poetry

What is an Acrostic Poem?
An acrostic poem is a type of poetry where the first, last or other letters in a line spell out a particular word or
phrase. The most common and simple form of an acrostic poem is where the first letters of each line spell out
the word or phrase.
Example – An acrostic poem using the beginning of lines
A less common and slightly more difficult type of an acrostic poem is where the last letter of each line spells
out the word or phrase.
Example - An acrostic poem using the end of lines
Finally, the more difficult type is where letters in the middle of the acrostic spell out the word or phrase.
Example - An acrostic poem using the middle of the lines
What is a Free Verse Poem?
A Free Verse is poetry written with rhymed or unrhymed verse that has no set meter to it.
An example of a Free Verse poem
In Flight
Wake up to a bright sapphire morning
Cloudless skies
This can only mean one thing
It’s a go!
At the launch site
Teeth chit-chattering
And not just from the c-cold
What if a bird confuses my head for a perch?
Will my glasses be fogged up by the clouds?
If I fall out of the basket
And land in a field of cows
Up we go!
Far below
Idyllic fields of patchwork green
Glittering lakes - a treasure trove beneath the surface
Click!
I can’t believe I’m so high
Feeling like a queen
I stretch my arms out to the sides
Now I’m a bird
So high
I close my eyes and take flight
I feel the wind in my wings
Up with the clouds
My hair, now feathers, sweeps behind me
I am as elegant as a swan
Soaring higher than the Earth
Oh
I’m not a bird
I’m not as elegant as a swan
I’m about as elegant as a rhino on roller skates
I’m just a schoolgirl
On a balloon flight
And we just crash-landed
In a field
With cows.
What is a Cinquain?
A cinquain poem is a verse of five lines that do not rhyme. The cinquain poem was created by Adelaide
Crapsey.
What is the structure of a cinquain?
A cinquain consists of five unrhymed lines.
Each line has a set number of syllables see below:
Line
Line
Line
Line
Line
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
2
4
6
8
2
syllables
syllables
syllables
syllables
syllables
An example of a Cinquain Poem
My mum (2 syllables)
Is so caring (4 syllables)
She is always helpful (6 syllables)
She is so beautiful and kind (8 syllables)
Love you. (2 syllables)
What is a Diamante Poem?
When a diamante poem is written it takes on the shape of a diamond.
The Structure of a Diamante Poem
A diamante poem is made up of 7 lines using a set structure:
Line
Line
Line
Line
Line
Line
Line
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
Beginning subject
Two describing words about line 1
Three doing words about line 1
A short phrase about line 1, a short phrase about line 7
Three doing words about line 7
Two describing words about line 7
End subject
An example of a diamante poem
Bike
Shiny, quiet,
Pedaling, spinning, weaving
Whizzing round corners, zooming along roads
Racing, roaring, speeding
Fast, loud,
Car
What is a Haiku Poem?
A Haiku is a Japanese poem which can also be known as a Hokku. A Haiku poem is similar to a Tanka but
has fewer lines. A Haiku is a type of poetry that can be written on many themes, from love to nature.
What is the Structure of a Haiku Poem?
A Haiku consists of 3 lines and 17 syllables.
Each line has a set number of syllables see below:
Line 1 – 5 syllables
Line 2 – 7 syllables
Line 3 – 5 syllables
The following are typical of haiku:
 A focus on nature.
 A "season word" such as "snow" which tells the reader what time of year it is.
 A division somewhere in the poem, which focuses first on one thing, than on another. The relationship
between these two parts is sometimes surprising.
 Instead of saying how a scene makes him or her feel, the poet shows the details that caused that
emotion. If the sight of an empty winter sky made the poet feel lonely, describing that sky can give the
same feeling to the reader.
This is based on an exercise from the poet Ron Patchett which is described in The Haiku Handbook by William
J. Higginson:
1. Write two lines about something beautiful in nature. You can use the pictures below to give you ideas.
Don't worry about counting syllables yet.
2. Write a third line that is a complete surprise, that is about something completely different from the
first two lines.
3. Look at the three lines together. Does the combination of these two seemingly unrelated parts suggest
any surprising relationships? Does it give you any interesting ideas?
4. Now rewrite the poem, using the 5-syllable, 7-syllable, 5-syllable format and experimenting with the
new ideas or perspectives that have occurred to you.
An Example of a Haiku Poem
(5) The sky is so blue.
(7) The sun is so warm up high.
(5) I love the summer.
An old silent pond...
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.
From Haiku: This Other World
Richard Wright (1908-1960)
Whitecaps on the bay:
A broken signboard banging
In the April wind.
What is a Sonnet Poem?
A Sonnet is a poem of an expressive thought or idea made up of 14 lines, each being 10 syllables long. Its
rhymes are arranged according to one of the schemes – Italian, eight lines, called an octave consisting of two
quatrains which normally open the poem as with a question, are followed by six lines called a sestet that are
the answer, or the more common English which is three quatrains followed by a rhyming couplet.
The Structure of a Sonnet Poem
ab ab, cdcd, efef, gg - English
abba abba cdecde - Italian
An example of a Sonnet Poem
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (Sonnet 18)
William Shakespeare, 1564 - 1616
(a)
(b)
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
(e)
(f)
(g)
(g)
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
“If We Must Die,” Claude McKay (1919)
If we must die—let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die—oh, let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
Oh, Kinsmen! We must meet the common foe;
Though far outnumbered, let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
Why Did I Laugh Tonight?
Why did I laugh tonight? No voice will tell:
No God, no Demon of severe response,
Deigns to reply from Heaven or from Hell.
Then to my human heart I turn at once.
Heart! Thou and I are here, sad and alone;
I say, why did I laugh? O mortal pain!
O Darkness! Darkness! ever must I moan,
To question Heaven and Hell and Heart in vain.
Why did I laugh? I know this Being's lease,
My fancy to its utmost blisses spreads;
Yet would I on this very midnight cease,
And the world's gaudy ensigns see in shreds;
Verse, Fame, and Beauty are intense indeed,
But Death intenser -Death is Life's high meed.
John Keats
His Last Sonnet - Poem by John Keats
Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art! Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like Nature's patient sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors No -yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillowed upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever -or else swoon to death.
John Keats
What is a Tanka Poem?
A tanka poem is a Japanese poem which can also be known as a waka or uta. A tanka poem is similar to
a haiku but has two additional lines.
What is the Structure of a Tanka Poem?
A tanka consists of 5 lines and 31 syllables.
Each line has a set number of syllables see below:
Line
Line
Line
Line
Line
1
2
3
4
5
–
–
–
–
–
5
7
5
7
7
syllables
syllables
syllables
syllables
syllables
An Example of a Tanka Poem<
(5)
(7)
(5)
(7)
(7)
I love my kitten.
She is so little and cute.
She has a pink tongue,
And lots of long whiskers too.
She purrs when I stroke her back.
What is a Rondeau Poem?
A Rondeau is a short poem consisting of fifteen lines that have two rhymes throughout. The first few words or
phrase from the first line are repeated twice in the poem as a refrain.
Example of a Rondeau Poem
The capital A is the refrain and sentence it is taken from
(a) In Summertime we do not go
(a) To school for weeks and weeks, no no!
(b) We take a day trip to the beach
(b) And buy ourselves an ice cream each
(a) We run into the surf that's low
(a) Get seaweed wrapped around our toes
(a) While others sunbathe on a throw
(b) We build sandcastles tides can't reach
(A) In Summertime.
(a) As the light warm breeze begins to blow
(a) And our hunger begins to grow
(b) From the picnic I grab a peach
(b) 'Let's stay longer' I do beseech
(a) As the sun sets the sky does glow
(A) In Summertime.
What is a Shape Poem?
A Shape Poem is a type of poetry that describes an object and is shaped the same as the object the poem is
describing.
You could write your shape poem on anything.
What Shapes Could You Make Your Poetry?
You could have a circle-shaped poem describing a cookie, or a poem about love shaped like a heart.
An Example of a Shape Poem