Types of Poetry

1) Narrative

Definition: 

Poem about a story.

Example:

In the ages of Faith, before the day

When men were too proud to weep or pray,

There stood in a red-roofed Breton town

Snugly nestled 'twixt sea and down,

A chapel for simple souls to meet,

Nightly, and sing with voices sweet,

Ave, Maria!

2) Ballads

Definition: 

Poem about love, dead and dramatic things.

Example:

I'll tell a tale, a thrilling tale of love beyond compare

I knew a lad not long ago more gorgeous than any I've seen.

And in his eyes I found my self a'falling in love with the swain.

Oh, the glorious fellow I met by the ocean with eyes of deep-sea green!

He was a rugged sailor man with eyes of deep-sea green,

And I a maid, a tavern maid! Whose living was serving beer.

So with a kiss and with a wave, off on his boat he sailed

And left me on the dock, the theif! Without my heart, oh dear!

And with a heart that's lost at sea, I go on living still.

I still am now still serving beer in that tavern by the sea.

And though the pay check's still the same, the money won't go as far

For now I feed not just myself, but my little one and me!

So let that be a lesson, dear, and keep your heart safely hid.

I gave mine to a sailing thief with gorgeous eyes of green.

Save yours for a sweeter lad who makes the land his home.

Ah me! If only I'd never met that sailor by the sea!

3) Epic

Definition: 

Long narrative of a hero or adventure.

Example:

By the shore of Gitchie Gumee,

By the shining Big-Sea-Water,

At the doorway of his wigwam,

In the pleasant Summer morning,

Hiawatha stood and waited.

4) Lyric

Definition: 

Poem that express feelings.

Example:

You are the lyric and you are the melody.

You are the lyric of my heart and of my soul.

The beauty of the rose, speaks a lyric of love.

Love, speaks a lyric of you.

The silent lyric of goodness, echoes from within you.

My heart, speaks the lyric of love...to only you.

Let the words...the lyric...that bind, pass between us.

Let the lyric, of you...of me...be as one.

A million words I can speak of you and the lyrics

would be the same...I love you now. I always will

5) Sonnets

Definition: 

Poem that has fourteen lines and one rhythm order.

Example:

I could compare you to a summer day -

No! Summer's beautiful, but full of doubt,

He smiles sweetly, but he'll never stay,

And Summer's cash is always running out.

He laughs with me, then he turns and burns,

He's cold for weeks, then he'll change his mind -

Fair? No, unfair! Unaware of my concerns,

Gorgeous? Sure, but stupid, random, blind.

Dear, when you say you'll stay, you always will,

And when you change, you always give a reason,

You're too fierce for time or death to kill!

How could I compare you to a season?

You will shine, as constant as a star,

When this poem is forgotten; most poems are.

6) Odes

Definition: 

Poem made to thank. 

Example:

Ode To Cheese,

Which Makes Us Smile,

When Camera's go Clack.

Ode To Cheese,

Which make us taste,

The greatest of flavors, the wackiest of whack.

Ode To Cheese,

Blue, Gorgonzola,

American and Cheddar.

Ode To Cheese,

Beja and Feta,

In all types of weather.

Ode To Cheese,

For those on a diet,

or trying to get fatter.

Ode To Cheese,

with crackers and wine,

with grapes can flatter.

Ode To Cheese,

when you're sad and happy,

Cheese just fits.

Ode To Cheese,

Mountains and Mountains,

or bits and bits.

Ode to the Cheese,

To appreciate,

eat,

and take pictures. 

7) Elegies

Definition: 

Poem about the death of somebody.

Example:

Too proud to die; broken and blind he died The darkest way, and did not turn away, A cold kind man brave in his narrow pride On that darkest day, Oh, forever may He lie lightly, at last, on the last, crossed Hill, under the grass, in love, and there grow Young among the long flocks, and never lie lost Or still all the numberless days of his death, though Above all he longed for his mother's breast Which was rest and dust, and in the kind ground The darkest justice of death, blind and unblessed. Let him find no rest but be fathered and found, I prayed in the crouching room, by his blind bed, In the muted house, one minute before Noon, and night, and light. the rivers of the dead Veined his poor hand I held, and I saw Through his unseeing eyes to the roots of the sea. (An old tormented man three-quarters blind, I am not too proud to cry that He and he Will never never go out of my mind. All his bones crying, and poor in all but pain, Being innocent, he dreaded that he died Hating his God, but what he was was plain: An old kind man brave in his burning pride. The sticks of the house were his; his books he owned. Even as a baby he had never cried; Nor did he now, save to his secret wound. Out of his eyes I saw the last light glide. Here among the liught of the lording sky An old man is with me where I go Walking in the meadows of his son's eye On whom a world of ills came down like snow. He cried as he died, fearing at last the spheres' Last sound, the world going out without a breath: Too proud to cry, too frail to check the tears, And caught between two nights, blindness and death. O deepest wound of all that he should die On that darkest day. oh, he could hide The tears out of his eyes, too proud to cry. Until I die he will not leave my side.

8) Free Verse

Definition: 

Free-style poem, doesn't have any pattern or rhythm.

Example:

Spoken--a word implicit.

A concept--broken.

Trust--

A token, dropped

In the machine--

Time's up.

I have proven over

And again, I am

Tougher than I seem--

A fool still, hopeful.

And you never say

You grant me equal credibility

Or similar delusions.

To believe everything

You say--how can

I give you what I am not given?

But I do--

I would, and I will.

And I let you

Keep pieces of me

Locked, keyed to you

Secretly--only I

Can no longer

Be sure of finding them--

You will tell me,

I or you

Right or wrong.

And this new

Revisionist me

Wants only to be right

And for you to know.