Sonnet (Petrarchan / Italian)
the Petrarchan sonnet is divided into two stanzas, the octave (the first eight lines) followed by the answering sestet (the final six lines).
Quoted from Sonnet | Academy of American Poets (poets.org glossary)
Poetic forms
Structural rules, quoted; plain explanations; public-domain examples.
Each form page quotes its structural rules from the poets.org glossary, restates them in plain words, and, where we found one, shows a public-domain example from Project Gutenberg with its original publication date.
Sonnet (Shakespearean / English)
The second major type of sonnet, the Shakespearean, or English sonnet, follows a different set of rules. Here, three quatrains and a couplet follow this rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg.
Quoted from Sonnet | Academy of American Poets (poets.org glossary)
Villanelle
The villanelle is a highly structured poem made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain, with two repeating rhymes and two refrains.
Quoted from Villanelle | Academy of American Poets (poets.org glossary)
Ghazal
The ghazal is composed of a minimum of five couplets —and typically no more than fifteen—that are structurally, thematically, and emotionally autonomous.
Quoted from Ghazal | Academy of American Poets (poets.org glossary)
Haiku
A traditional Japanese haiku is a three-line poem with seventeen syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count.
Quoted from Haiku | Academy of American Poets (poets.org glossary)
Tanka
The tanka is a thirty-one-syllable poem, traditionally written in a single unbroken line.
Quoted from Tanka | Academy of American Poets (poets.org glossary)
Pantoum
The pantoum is a poem of any length, composed of four-line stanzas in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza serve as the first and third lines of the next stanza.
Quoted from Pantoum | Academy of American Poets (poets.org glossary)
Sestina
The sestina is a complex, thirty-nine-line poem featuring the intricate repetition of end-words in six stanzas and an envoi.
Quoted from Sestina | Academy of American Poets (poets.org glossary)
Rondeau
it is composed of fifteen lines, eight to ten syllables each, divided stanzaically into a quintet, a quatrain, and a sestet.
Quoted from Rondeau | Academy of American Poets (poets.org glossary)
Triolet
The triolet is a short poem of eight lines with only two rhymes used throughout.
Quoted from Triolet | Academy of American Poets (poets.org glossary)
Terza rima
The end-word of the second line in one tercet supplies the rhyme for the first and third lines in the following tercet.
Quoted from Terza Rima | Academy of American Poets (poets.org glossary)
Ballad
A typical ballad is a plot-driven song, with one or more characters hurriedly unfurling events leading to a dramatic conclusion.
Quoted from Ballad | Academy of American Poets (poets.org glossary)
Ode
is a formal address to an event, a person, or a thing not present.
Quoted from Ode | Academy of American Poets (poets.org glossary)
Limerick
Composed of five lines or five-line stanzas, the limerick adheres to a strict rhyme scheme and bouncy rhythm
Quoted from Limerick | Academy of American Poets (poets.org glossary)
Sapphic stanza
Sapphics are made up of any number of four-line stanzas
Quoted from Sapphic | Academy of American Poets (poets.org glossary)
Blank verse
Blank verse refers to poetry that does not rhyme but follows a regular meter, most commonly iambic pentameter .
Quoted from Blank Verse | Academy of American Poets (poets.org glossary)
Couplet / heroic couplet
The rhyming iambic pentameter or five-stress couplet—later known as the heroic couplet—was introduced into English by Chaucer
Quoted from Couplet | Academy of American Poets (poets.org glossary)