--- title: "Poetry Forms: Sonnet, Villanelle, Haiku | Shelf Sonnet" description: "Nine poetry forms explained: structure, rhyme scheme and meter, a short public-domain example of each, and a blank scaffold to copy for your own poem." url: https://shelfsonnet.me/poetry-forms/ --- The forms shelf # Poetry forms Nine fixed forms, each with its shape in rhyme letters, the rules that make it, a short public-domain example and a blank scaffold you can copy and write over. - Shakespearean sonnet - Petrarchan sonnet - Villanelle - Haiku - Limerick - Sestina - Pantoum - Ghazal - Ballad stanza ## Shakespearean sonnet abab cdcd efef gg - **Lines**: 14: three quatrains and a closing couplet. - **Meter**: Iambic pentameter: five da‑DUM beats, ten syllables a line. - **Rhyme**: A new pair of rhymes in each quatrain, then a rhyming couplet. - **The turn**: The couplet usually concludes, or turns against, what the quatrains have built. > Let me not to the marriage of true minds > Admit impediments. Love is not love > Which alters when it alteration finds, > Or bends with the remover to remove: > … > If this be error and upon me prov’d, > I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d. William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116, lines 1–4 and 13–14. Public domain; text from [Project Gutenberg #1041](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1041). ### Scaffold to copy ``` Shakespearean sonnet 14 lines of iambic pentameter (10 syllables) a __________________________ b __________________________ a __________________________ b __________________________ c __________________________ d __________________________ c __________________________ d __________________________ e __________________________ f __________________________ e __________________________ f __________________________ g __________________________ (the turn) g __________________________ ``` Written one? [Check it in the meter counter](https://shelfsonnet.me/): it counts the syllables and letters the rhymes. ## Petrarchan sonnet abbaabba cdecde or cdcdcd - **Lines**: 14: an octave of eight lines and a sestet of six. - **Meter**: Iambic pentameter in English (Petrarch wrote in Italian eleven-syllable lines). - **Rhyme**: Only two rhymes in the octave; the sestet runs cdecde or cdcdcd. - **The turn**: The volta comes between the eighth and ninth lines, where the sestet answers the octave. > Much have I traveled in the realms of gold > And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; > Round many western islands have I been > Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. > Oft of one wide expanse had I been told > That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne; > Yet never did I breathe its pure serene > Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: John Keats, “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” (1816), the octave. Public domain; text from [poets.org](https://poets.org/poem/first-looking-chapmans-homer). ### Scaffold to copy ``` Petrarchan sonnet 14 lines of iambic pentameter (10 syllables) Octave (the problem or question) a __________________________ b __________________________ b __________________________ a __________________________ a __________________________ b __________________________ b __________________________ a __________________________ Sestet (the answer; the turn comes here) c __________________________ d __________________________ e __________________________ c __________________________ d __________________________ e __________________________ ``` Written one? [Check it in the meter counter](https://shelfsonnet.me/): it counts the syllables and letters the rhymes. ## Villanelle A1 b A2 · a b A1 · a b A2 · a b A1 · a b A2 · a b A1 A2 - **Lines**: 19: five tercets and a closing quatrain. - **Refrains**: Line 1 (A1) returns as lines 6, 12 and 18; line 3 (A2) as lines 9, 15 and 19, so the two refrains end the poem as a couplet. - **Rhyme**: Only two rhyme sounds in the whole poem. - **Meter**: Not fixed by the form. > They are all gone away, > The House is shut and still, > There is nothing more to say. > > Through broken walls and gray > The winds blow bleak and shrill: > They are all gone away. Edwin Arlington Robinson, “The House on the Hill”, from The Children of the Night (1897), the first two tercets. Public domain; text from [Project Gutenberg #313](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/313). ### Scaffold to copy ``` Villanelle 19 lines: two refrains (A1, A2), two rhymes (a, b) A1 ________________ (refrain 1) b __________________________ A2 ________________ (refrain 2) a __________________________ b __________________________ A1 (repeat refrain 1) a __________________________ b __________________________ A2 (repeat refrain 2) a __________________________ b __________________________ A1 (repeat refrain 1) a __________________________ b __________________________ A2 (repeat refrain 2) a __________________________ b __________________________ A1 (repeat refrain 1) A2 (repeat refrain 2) ``` Written one? [Check it in the meter counter](https://shelfsonnet.me/): it counts the syllables and letters the rhymes. ## Haiku 5 · 7 · 5 syllables - **Lines**: 3, unrhymed. - **Syllables**: 5, 7 and 5 in the traditional pattern, seventeen in all. - **Subject**: Traditionally a fleeting moment in a particular season, read in one breath. - **In English**: Japanese counts sound units (on), not syllables, so translations and many English haiku break the 5-7-5 pattern. > An ancient pond! > With a sound from the water > Of the frog as it plunges in. Matsuo Bashō, translated by William George Aston (1899). Public domain; text from [poets.org](https://poets.org/poem/ancient-pond). ### Scaffold to copy ``` Haiku 3 lines, 5-7-5 syllables, unrhymed ________________ (5 syllables) __________________________ (7 syllables) ________________ (5 syllables) ``` Written one? [Check it in the meter counter](https://shelfsonnet.me/): it counts the syllables and letters the rhymes. ## Limerick aabba - **Lines**: 5. - **Rhyme**: Lines 1, 2 and 5 rhyme; lines 3 and 4 rhyme with each other. The last line may repeat the first. - **Rhythm**: Bouncing anapests (da-da-DUM): three beats in lines 1, 2 and 5, two in the shorter lines 3 and 4. - **Tone**: Comic, light verse. > There was an Old Man with a beard, > Who said, “It is just as I feared!— > Two Owls and a Hen, > Four Larks and a Wren, > Have all built their nests in my beard!” Edward Lear, from A Book of Nonsense (1846). Public domain; text from [Project Gutenberg #982](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/982). ### Scaffold to copy ``` Limerick 5 lines, aabba, anapests (da-da-DUM) a __________________________ (3 beats) a __________________________ (3 beats) b ________________ (2 beats) b ________________ (2 beats) a __________________________ (3 beats) ``` Written one? [Check it in the meter counter](https://shelfsonnet.me/): it counts the syllables and letters the rhymes. ## Sestina 6 end words, rotated: ABCDEF · FAEBDC · CFDABE · ECBFAD · DEACFB · BDFECA - **Lines**: 39: six stanzas of six lines and a three-line envoi. - **End words**: The six words that end the lines of stanza 1 end every stanza’s lines, in a new order each time (each stanza takes the last word, then the first, then the fifth, the second, the fourth and the third of the one before). - **Envoi**: Three lines ending E, C, A (or A, C, E), with B, D and F inside them, so all six words appear. - **Rhyme and meter**: None required: the repeated words do the work. > Speakin’ in general, I ’ave tried ’em all— > The ’appy roads that take you o’er the world. > Speakin’ in general, I ’ave found them good > For such as cannot use one bed too long, > But must get ’ence, the same as I ’ave done, > An’ go observin’ matters till they die. Rudyard Kipling, “Sestina of the Tramp-Royal”, from The Seven Seas (1896), stanza 1 (end words: all, world, good, long, done, die). Public domain; text from [Project Gutenberg #27870](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27870). ### Scaffold to copy ``` Sestina 6 stanzas of 6 lines and a 3-line envoi Your six end words: A ________ B ________ C ________ D ________ E ________ F ________ End words, line by line: Stanza 1: A B C D E F Stanza 2: F A E B D C Stanza 3: C F D A B E Stanza 4: E C B F A D Stanza 5: D E A C F B Stanza 6: B D F E C A Envoi: E C A (B, D, F inside the lines) ``` Write over the blanks, keeping the pattern of repeated words or lines. ## Pantoum lines 2 and 4 of each quatrain become lines 1 and 3 of the next - **Stanzas**: Quatrains, as many as you like. - **Repetition**: The second and fourth lines of each stanza return as the first and third of the next. - **Ending**: The last line is often the poem’s first line, closing the circle. - **Origin**: The Malay pantun, a short rhymed quatrain (abab); English pantoums may rhyme or not. > Toiling in Town now is “horrid,” > (There is that woman again!)— > June in the zenith is torrid, > Thought gets dry in the brain. > > There is that woman again: > “Strawberries! fourpence a pottle!” > Thought gets dry in the brain; > Ink gets dry in the bottle. Austin Dobson, “In Town”, the first two stanzas. Public domain; text from [Project Gutenberg #24334](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24334). ### Scaffold to copy ``` Pantoum Quatrains: lines 2 and 4 return as 1 and 3 of the next Stanza 1 1 __________________________ 2 __________________________ 3 __________________________ 4 __________________________ Stanza 2 2 (repeat) 5 __________________________ 4 (repeat) 6 __________________________ Stanza 3 5 (repeat) 7 __________________________ 6 (repeat) 8 __________________________ Last stanza 7 (repeat) 3 (repeat line 3) 8 (repeat) 1 (repeat line 1) ``` Write over the blanks, keeping the pattern of repeated words or lines. ## Ghazal rhyme + refrain at the end of both lines of the first couplet, then of every second line - **Couplets**: At least five, usually no more than fifteen, each complete in itself. - **Rhyme and refrain**: The first couplet ends both lines with a rhyme followed by a refrain; every later couplet picks them up in its second line only. - **Signature**: The last couplet usually names the poet, or plays on the name’s meaning. - **Origin**: Seventh-century Arabia, made famous by Persian poets such as Rumi and Hafiz. > Breeze of the morn, if hence to the land thou fliest—Of my friend, > Return with a musky breath from the lock so sweet > Of my friend. > > Yea, by that life, I swear I would lay down mine in content, > If once I received through thee but a message sent > Of my friend. Hafiz, translated by Herman Bicknell, the first two couplets of ode XXV (refrain: “Of my friend”). Public domain; text from [Project Gutenberg #10315](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10315). ### Scaffold to copy ``` Ghazal 5 to 15 couplets: rhyme (R) + refrain (REF) ________________ R REF ________________ R REF __________________________ ________________ R REF __________________________ ________________ R REF __________________________ ________________ R REF __________________________ (your name, or its meaning) ________________ R REF ``` Write over the blanks, keeping the pattern of repeated words or lines. ## Ballad stanza abcb (common measure: abab) - **Lines**: Quatrains, as many as the story needs. - **Meter**: Four beats, then three, alternating; in common measure that is iambic, 8 and 6 syllables. - **Rhyme**: Lines 2 and 4 rhyme (abcb); common measure, the meter of hymns, often rhymes abab. - **Use**: Storytelling: folk ballads, hymns, and many of Emily Dickinson’s poems. > Because I could not stop for Death, > He kindly stopped for me; > The carriage held but just ourselves > And Immortality. Emily Dickinson, “Because I could not stop for Death”, from Poems (1890), stanza 1. Public domain; text from [Project Gutenberg #12242](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12242). ### Scaffold to copy ``` Ballad stanza Quatrains: 4 beats, 3 beats, abcb a __________________________ (8 syll.) b ________________ (6 syll.) c __________________________ (8 syll.) b ________________ (6 syll.) ``` Written one? [Check it in the meter counter](https://shelfsonnet.me/): it counts the syllables and letters the rhymes. ## Reading the rhyme letters Each new rhyme sound gets the next letter of the alphabet, so abab means lines 1 and 3 rhyme, and so do lines 2 and 4. Capital letters with numbers, as in the villanelle’s A1 and A2, mark whole lines that come back as refrains. **Using a scaffold:** copy it into your notebook or editor and write over the blanks. Keep the letters beside your lines until the poem is finished, then paste it into the [meter counter](https://shelfsonnet.me/) to check the syllables and rhymes, or look for a rhyme in the [rhyme finder](https://shelfsonnet.me/rhyme-finder/). Entering a contest you found online? Before paying an entry fee to a contest or anthology run by an organiser you do not know, it can help to see how long their website has existed: WebTraceCheck’s [DNS and domain lookup](https://webtracecheck.com/dns-lookup) shows the details behind a domain. To look round the site first, open the link in [WebTraceCheck’s disposable cloud browser](https://webtracecheck.com/), an isolated desktop that is deleted after each session. ## Sources - Academy of American Poets, poets.org glossary: [sonnet](https://poets.org/glossary/sonnet), [villanelle](https://poets.org/glossary/villanelle), [haiku](https://poets.org/glossary/haiku), [limerick](https://poets.org/glossary/limerick), [sestina](https://poets.org/glossary/sestina), [pantoum](https://poets.org/glossary/pantoum), [ghazal](https://poets.org/glossary/ghazal) and [ballad](https://poets.org/glossary/ballad). - Poetry Foundation glossary: [ballad](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/education/glossary/ballad) (rhymed abcb quatrains alternating four- and three-stress lines) and [common measure](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/education/glossary/common-measure). - Examples: public-domain texts from Project Gutenberg and poets.org, linked under each one. ## Questions **Do I have to follow the rules exactly?** No. Poets bend every form here, with near rhymes, varied refrains or a missing syllable. Knowing the pattern lets you break it on purpose. **Which form is easiest to start with?** The haiku and the limerick are short, and the ballad stanza only asks for one rhyme in four lines. The sestina and the villanelle take planning: choose the repeated words or refrains first. **What is the difference between the two sonnets?** The Petrarchan sonnet splits into an octave and a sestet with a turn at line 9; the Shakespearean builds three quatrains and ends on a couplet. Both have 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter.