1. Poetic Structure/Form

2. Internal form External form
The arrangement of ideas, images, thoughts, and sentences.
External form
Establishing an external order or form including patterns of rhyme and meter.

3. Continuous form Slight element design No formal grouping
Breaks dictated by units of meaning (internal)

4. “After Apple-Picking” by Robert Frost
My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree Toward heaven still, And there's a barrel that I didn't fill Beside it, and there may be two or three Apples I didn't pick upon some bough. But I am done with apple-picking now. Essence of winter sleep is on the night, The scent of apples: I am drowsing off. I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight I got from looking through a pane of glass I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough And held against the world of hoary grass. It melted, and I let it fall and break.

5. Stanzaic Form Written in a series of stanzas
Repeated units have same number of lines
Usually same metrical pattern
Often an identical rhyme scheme

6. Look for 4 elements Rhyme scheme Position of refrain
Prevailing metrical foot
Number of feet per line

7. Terza rima Composed of tercets (three-line stanza)
Final word of the second line rhymes with the final words of the first and third lines of the succeeding tercet.
Rhyme scheme: aba bcb cdc ded …

8. “Ode to the West Wind” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
O WILD West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being
Thou from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes! O thou
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
The wingèd seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow
Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill 10
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
With living hues and odours plain and hill;
Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and preserver; hear, O hear!

9. Ballad Stanza Quatraine (four-line stanza) Rhyme scheme: abcb
First and third lines typically have four accented syllables
Second and fourth lines have three accented syllables

10. From “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Coleridge
He holds him with his glittering eye--
The Wedding-Guest stood still,
And listens like a three years' child :
The Mariner hath his will.
The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone :
He cannot choose but hear ;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.
`The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,
Merrily did we drop
Below the kirk, below the hill,
Below the lighthouse top.

11. Rhyme Royal 7-line stanza Iambic pentameter Rhyme scheme: ababbcc
Organized either as a tercet and two couplets or a quatrain and a tercet.

12. From “They flee from me” by Thomas Wyatt
They flee from me that sometime did me seek
With naked foot, stalking in my chamber.
I have seen them gentle, tame, and meek,
That now are wild and do not remember
That sometime they put themself in danger
To take bread at my hand; and now they range,
Busily seeking with a continual change.

13. Spenserian stanza 9 lines First 8 lines are iambic pentameter
Final line is an Alexandrine (iambic hexameter)
Rhyme scheme: ababbcbcc

14. I.
ST. AGNES’ Eve—Ah, bitter chill it was!
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;
The hare limp’d trembling through the frozen grass,
And silent was the flock in woolly fold:
Numb were the Beadsman’s fingers, while he told
His rosary, and while his frosted breath,
Like pious incense from a censer old,
Seem’d taking flight for heaven, without a death,
Past the sweet Virgin’s picture, while his prayer he saith.
II.
His prayer he saith, this patient, holy man;
Then takes his lamp, and riseth from his knees,
And back returneth, meagre, barefoot, wan,
Along the chapel aisle by slow degrees:
The sculptur’d dead, on each side, seem to freeze,
Emprison’d in black, purgatorial rails:
Knights, ladies, praying in dumb orat’ries,
He passeth by; and his weak spirit fails
To think how they may ache in icy hoods and mails.

15. Fixed Form
A traditional pattern that applies to a whole poem.

16. Sonnet 14 lines Iambic pentameter Love was original subject
Structure and rhyme scheme may vary
Two traditional types are
Italian/Petrarchan
English/Shakespearean

17. Italian Sonnet 14 lines, either continuous or divided into two parts
Octave: abba, abba
Sestet: cdecde or cdcdcd
Division may contain
Situation/comment
Idea/example
Question/answer

18. “When I Consider How My Light Is Spent” by John Milton
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide;
"Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need
Either man's work or His own gifts. Who best
Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait."

19. Shakespearean sonnet 3 quatraines followed by a couplet
abab, cdcd, efef, gg
Quatraines often present 3 examples or variations
Couplet presents conclusion

20. “Sonnet 78” by William Shakespeare
So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse, (A)
And found such faire assistance in my verse, (B)
As every Alien pen hath got my use, (A)
And under thee their poesy disperse. (B)
Thine eyes, that taught the dumb on high to sing, (C)
And heavy ignorance aloft to flie, (D)
Have added feathers to the learned's wing, (C)
And given grace a double majestie. (D)
Yet be most proud of that which I compile, (E)
Whose influence is thine and born of thee, (F)
In others'works thou dost but mend the style (E)
And arts with thy sweet graces graced be. (F)
But thou art all my art, and dost advance (G)
As high as learning my rude ignorance. (G)

21. Spenserian Sonnet
Variation on Shakespearean sonnet
abab bcbc cdcd ee

22. "Happy ye leaves! whenas those lily hands” by Edmund Spenser
Which hold my life in their dead doing might,
Shall handle you, and hold in love's soft bands,
Like captives trembling at the victor's sight.
And happy lines! on which, with starry light,
Those lamping eyes will deign sometimes to look,
And read the sorrows of my dying sprite,
Written with tears in heart's close bleeding book.
And happy rhymes! bathed in the sacred brook
Of Helicon, whence she derived is,
When ye behold that angel's blessed look,
My soul's long lacked food, my heaven's bliss.
Leaves, lines, and rhymes seek her to please alone,
Whom if ye please, I care for other none.

23. Sestina French verse form
Six sestets and a 3-line envoy (concluding stanza)
Six terminal words of 1st stanza ( ) are repeated in a specific pattern
( ; ; ; ; )
Envoy’s terminal words are and the words must appear in the middle of the envoy lines.

24. “Island Sestina” by Kathleen Craker Firestone
There's something magical about an island.
No other meets the feeling, quite serene,
of walking on a quiet beach of white sand
and skipping stones across the liquid blue.
The solitude is seen in wandering footprints
and heard in whispering leaves of nearby trees.
The kingbird and the bluebird perched in song trees
bring music to the silence of the island,
and chipmunks on the ground leave tiny footprints.
The flight of gulls above is so serene.
The flowers in the meadow, bells of soft blue,
and daisies spring up sweetly from the sand.
The dune is but a mountain made of beach sand.
Its borders are made green with cedar trees.
The green appears more bright against the sky's blue
to compliment dune's bleakness on the island.
The dune crest, place for resting, so serene,
gives way in gentle servitude to footprints.
A blowout in the dune is crossed by footprints.
One dancing in delight across the sand
falls silently to sand and rests serene
beside decaying trunks of cedar trees
and feels the peace of being on an island,
while gazing up at skies of brilliant blue.
The dune slopes down to meet the water's blue.
The water fills small craters left by footprints.
Footprints trace the border of the island,
leaving peaceful stride marks in the sand;
and inland from the beach, the whispering trees
still sing a gently melody, serene.
Is there a place on earth that's more serene?
A place where there's no cause for feeling blue?
If they could speak, these solid, stately trees,
of past explorers who have left their footprints,
what messages would they write in the sand,
of solitude discovered on an island?
The mood of peace serene is left by footprints.
The water, tranquil blue, caresses sand,
as songs from whispering trees praise such an island.

25. Villanelle 19 lines divided into 5 tercets and a concluding quatraine
1st and 3rd lines of 1st stanza serve as refrain lines entwined in pattern--repeated at the ends of the 2nd and 4th stanzas, and the 3rd repeated at the end of the third and fifth stanzas; also as the last two lines of the poem.
Only two rhymes throughout poem

26. “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

27. Rondeau French verse form 15 lines in three stanzas aabba aabc aabbac
Only two rhymes except the refrain (c) which is identical to the 1st half of the 1st line.

28. “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe!
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high!
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

29. Rondel 13 or 14 lines abba abab abbaa (b)
1st two lines are repeated as a refrain in the 7th,8th, and 13th lines.
If 14th line is included, it is identical to the 2nd line.

30. Roundel 11 lines in 3 stanzas abaB bab abaB
Like rondeau , has refrain (B) but only 2 rhymes

31. Triolets 8 lines abaaabab 1st two lines repeat in the last two lines
4th line is the same as the 1st line

32. “Birds At Winter”
Around the house the flakes fly faster,
And all the berries now are gone’
From holly and cotoneaster
Around the house. The flakes fly! – faster
Shutting indoors the crumb-outcaster
We used to see upon the lawn
Around the house. The Flakes fly faster
And all the berries now are gone!
Thomas Hardy

33. Ballade
3 long stanzas (8 lines) and concluding quatraine (envoy, usually addressed to person)
ababbcbC ababbcbC ababbcbC bcbC
Envoy addressed to the prince

34. A Ballade of Theatricals by G. K. Chesterton (1912)
Though all the critics' canons grow—
Far seedier than the actors' own—
Although the cottage-door's too low—
Although the fairy's twenty stone—
Although, just like the telephone,
She comes by wire and not by wings,
Though all the mechanism's known—
Believe me, there are real things.
Yes, real people— even so—
Even in a theatre, truth is known,
Though the agnostic will not know,
And though the gnostic will not own,
There is a thing called skin and bone,
And many a man that struts and sings
Has been as stony-broke as stone…
Believe me, there are real things
There is an hour when all men go;
An hour when man is all alone.
When idle minstrels in a row
Went down with all the bugles blown—
When brass and hymn and drum went down,
Down in death's throat with thunderings—
Ah, though the unreal things have grown,
Prince, though your hair is not your own
And half your face held on by strings,
And if you sat, you'd smash your throne—