updated
Tuesday, 01 November 2005 05:55:20 AM
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A few definitions:
Pantoum:
A poem of quatrains (four-line stanzas) in which the second and fourth lines of
each quatrain become the first and third lines of the next; it is rhymed ABAB;
the final quatrain uses the the first and third lines of the opening stanza
fourth and second, thus the poem ends with the opening line repeated.
It is difficult to find these in English within the confines of the above
description. Many have liberated it by changing or dropping the rhyme
scheme. Others have liberated the last line from any stanza as a kind of
one-line refrain.
Sonnet:
a 14-line poem consisting of 140
syllables distributed evenly throughout the lines. Traditional sonnets use
rhyme schemes.
Petrarchan Sonnet
(Italian origin)
Octave
+ Sestet
ababcdcd +
cdecde
Shakespearean Sonnet
(English origin)
ababcdcdefef gg
or: abab
cdcd efef gg
Spenserian Sonnet
(English Origin)
abab +
bcbc + cdcd + ee
Sestina:
it's complicated:
6 sestets + tercet ENVOI
Rhythm Scheme (rigid) Repeats
end-words
A-B-C-D-E-F
F-A-E-B-D-C
C-F-D-A-B-E
E-C-B-F-A-D
D-E-A-C-F-B
B-D-F-E-C-A
(envoi) E-C-A w/ B, D, and F
occurring within
Sample sestinae:
1 2 3 4
Villanelle:
A nineteen-line poem in
five stanzas - four tercets followed by a quatrain;
the first line is
repeated as the last line of the second and fourth stanzas;
the third line of the
first stanza is repeated as the last line of the third and fifth stanzas;
the poem ends with line
three following line one in a final couplet;
rhyme scheme ABA.
Famous Villanelles
include Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" and Theodore Roethke's
"The Waking".
Sample Villanelles:
