Poetry

Free Verse

There are no rules

I Dream'd in a Dream

I DREAM'D in a dream I saw a city invincible to the attacks of the

whole of the rest of the earth,

I dream'd that was the new city of Friends,

Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust love, it led

the rest,

It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of that city,

And in all their looks and words.

by Walt Whitman

Fog

The fog comes

on little cat feet.

It sits looking

over harbor and city

on silent haunches

and then moves on.

by Carl Sandburg

Sound

This poem uses the sense of sound to create non-rhymed verse

The Game

Chattering from the players

Stones kicked on the gravel

Ball whipped into mitts

Yelling back and forth from the bleachers

A bat cracks the ball

The umpire shouts his decision

My team groans.

~G. Lipson

Concrete

A combination of poetic language

arranged in the shape of the topic

Diamante

This poem has a diamond-shaped pattern:

Pattern #1:

topic (noun)

two describing words (adjectives)

three action words (verbs or "ing" action words)

a four-word phrase capturing some feeling about the topic

three action words (verbs or "ing" action words)

two describing words (adjectives)

ending word (noun, synonym, strong emotional word or hyphenated word for the topic)

Pattern #2:

name the topic noun (first line)

decide on the antonym

select two describing words for topic noun

select two describing words for antonym

generate three action words for topic noun

generate three action words for antonym

decide on four words (nouns are best), two of which fit the topic noun and two of which fit the antonym, ending noun

Pattern #1:

Fireball

Brilliant, beautiful

Flashing, shining, dashing

Bright, wondrous, black, nothing

Staring, hoping, missing

Deep, quiet

Darkness

Pattern #2:

LOVE

warm, wonderful

embracing, hugging, laughing

parents, relatives, -- Strangers, enemies

Neglected, frightened, trembling,

cold, bitter,

HATE

~G. Lipson

Quatrain

This poem is written in four lines and can be rhymed or unrhymed. If it rhymes, a variety of patterns can be used: [aabb], [abab], [abcb], [aaaa], etc. Quatrains can reflect anything - ordinary or profound.

The Mountain

The mountain frames the sky (a)

As a shadow of an eagle flies by. (a)

With clouds hanging at its edge (b)

A climber proves his courage on its rocky ledge. (b)

~Donna Brock

Limerick

A humorous verse of five lines with the rhyme scheme AABBA.

An artistic male cat called Greebo,

To an evening class he decided to go.

The teacher said, "That's not right

Your page is all white"

Greebs said, "It is a polar bear in the snow."

Cinquain

This poem has five lines and can follow three different patterns:

Pattern #1

2-syllable word or words announcing topic

4 syllables describing topic

6 syllables expressing action

8 syllables expressing feeling

2 syllable ending synonym for topic

Pattern #2

A noun

Two adjectives

Three -ing words

A phrase

Another word for the noun

Pattern #3

One word

Two words

Three words

Four words

One word

Pattern #1

Listen...

With faint dry sound,

Like steps of passing ghosts,

The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the trees

And fall.

~by Adalaide Crapsey

Pattern #2

Spaghetti

Messy, spicy

Slurping, sliding, falling

Between my plate and mouth

Delicious

~by Cindy Barden

Pattern #3

Dinosaurs

Lived once,

Long ago, but

Only dust and dreams

Remain

~by Cindy Barden

Couplet

Two lines that rhyme

I found a starfish in the bay

when I was fishing yesterday

Starfish, starfish in the ocean

moving along in slow motion

Many arms and colors bright

Sea stars are a special sight

Poem for Two Voices

A poem for two voices is written for two people to perform. Often, it is written in two columns with each person’s part in a column.

Grasshoppers

by Paul Fleischman

Grasshoppers

Sap's rising

Ground's warning

Grasshoppers are Grasshoppers are

hatching out hatching out

Autumn-laid eggs

splitting

Young stepping

into spring

Grasshoppers Grasshoppers

hopping hopping

high

Grassjumpers Grassjumpers

jumping jumping

far

Vaulting from

leaf to leaf

stem to stem leaf to leaf

plant to plant stem to stem

Grass-

leapers leapers

Grass-

bounders bounders

Grass-

springers springers

Grass-

soarers soarers

Leapfrogging Leapfrogging

longjumping longjumping

grasshoppers. grasshoppers.

Haiku

A haiku is a non-rhymed verse genre.

There are 5 syllables in the first sentence,

7 in the second and 5 again in the last sentence.

The old pond;

A frog jumps in -

The sound of the water.

by Matsuo Basho

Sonnet

This poem is 14 lines long and follows this pattern:

Quatrain

Quatrain

Quatrain

Couplet

The Sky

It hangs in the air with a mystical glow,

Surrounded by blue and the sporadic white,

And as the breeze grows strong and starts to blow,

The orb moves over to silver moonlight,

As the curtain of dark descends on a town,

Twinkles of brilliance appear in a wave,

As dawn breathes closer with a caramel brown,

The orange of fire lights up a cave,

The ball of yellow rises high,

With tendrils of red reaching away,

The hand and its fingers brush aside the night sky,

And here in a meadow where I lay,

I look up in wonder at the sun that’s a ball,

I feel diminutive and so very very small.

~Isaac Glen Kitchen-Smith

Poetry