Poetic Forms

Start with the range of forms

The Poetic Forms page is part of Poetry Analysis and Techniques in Literature. It brings together resources made by GoConqr users, with different ways to explore and practice the names and features of poetic forms.

For an overview, start with the Types of Poetry mind map. Its excerpt introduces the acrostic. Then use the Types of Poems flashcards to work through terms such as ballad, free verse, lyric poetry and sonnet. The Poetic Forms flashcards offer another set of terms, including blank verse and the heroic couplet.

Explore sonnets and ghazals

Once you have a starting vocabulary, open Analysis of Sonnets. This mind map covers Italian, Shakespearean and Spenserian sonnets, with notes on features such as quatrains, a couplet and a volta. Use it to compare the terms with those in the Types of Poems flashcards.

The Ghazal mind maps offer different points of entry. One looks at meaning and natural imagery; another highlights a repeated phrase and rhyming couplets. Look at both to see how their descriptions of the form differ in focus.

Use a map and quiz together

For ballads, begin with the Ballad Terminology mind map, then try the quiz with the same title. The ballad quiz at the top of the page also asks what a ballad is and includes questions about iambic and trochaic terms. Return to the map or flashcards when you want to check a term.

For sonnets, study Analysis of Sonnets before trying Knowledge about Sonnets. Moving between a map and a quiz gives you a way to check what you remember and choose what to look at again.

Continue through the unit

These resources give school students and teachers a choice of formats within the Poetic Forms section of Poetry Analysis and Techniques. Start broadly with a map or deck, then focus on a form that needs more attention. Choose a resource and make a study sequence that works for you.