KINDS

OF
POETRY
KINDS OF POETRY
There are several kinds of poetry.
Below are some examples. Focus
in their structure.
Japanese haiku
It short poem with 17 syllables in 3
lines of 5-7-5 usually about nature
and a specific season .
JAPANESE HAIKU
Peacefulness
Calm as a river
Tranquility in my heart
Blue summer skies reign.
English haiku
It is similar to a Japanese haiku,
but is less restrictive with regards to
the syllable count (due to the
language). It has 11 syllables in 3
lines of 3-5-3.
Fiipino haiku
It is even less restrictive in form as
the English haiku, and written in
Filipino.
Haibun
It is combines prose and poetry;
the prose serves to vividly describe
the location or scene, while the
poetry is meant to capture the
atmosphere or “feeling” associated
with the scene.
haibun
Tanka
It is a Japanese short poem
(generally known as waka) with five
lines following a syllable count of 5-
7-5-7-7.
Tanka
English/Shakespearean
sonnet
It has fourteen lines,
conventionally follows iambic
pentameter, with a rhyme scheme of
a-b-a-b-c-d-c-d-e-f-e-f-g-g.
English/Shakespearean
sonnet
Sestina
It has six verses with six lines, each
following an alternating end word
pattern.
Sestina-Paysage Moralise by W.H. Auden
Villanelle
It is a nineteen-line poem of five
tercets and a quatrain; the poem has
two refrains and two rhyme
patterns repeated throughout ,
involving the alternate repetition of
the first and third lines of the first
tercet.
Villanelle
TANAGA
It is a Filipino poetic form of four
lines with seven syllables each, all of
which rhyme together.
TANAGA
Awit
It is another Filipino poetic form;
emphasizes narrative greatly.
AWIT
Answer these questions:
1. How do the same poetic elements (rhyme,
meter, number of lines, verses, etc.) change
the way a poem is read?
2. Is it possible to break the form and still call
that same form (i.e., in the case of the haiku,
from the original Japanese to the English
and Filipino counterparts)?
Answer these questions:
3. Which form do you think is the
hardest to write? Why? Which form
looks easiest to write?
4. How does each form contribute to
their purpose (e.g., tanka as
descriptive poetry, awit as used in
storytelling, sonnet as in
Shakespeare’s works?