Various forms of Poetry

i. Epic:

The word ‘epic’ has originated from Latin word ‘epices’ and Greek word ‘epic’ which means a song.

An epic is a long poetic composition usually centred upon a hero, in which a series of great achievements or events is narrated in elevated style. For example, Homer’s Iliad is an epic poem.

ii. Lyric poetry:

A lyric is a short poem about a feeling, an emotion or usually about love. It is no longer than fifty or sixty lines.

iii. Ballad:

A ballad is a form of verse adopted for singing and recitation, which presents a dramatic or exciting episode in simple narrative form.

iv. Ode:

An ode is a poem originally to be sung but now a grand lyric poem often in praise of someone or something. Odes are highly subjective in content of being most often an externalization of poets’ internal feelings. It was established by Pindar in Greece and by Horace in Rome.

v. Elegy:

An elegy is a mournful, melancholic, or plaintive poem, specially a funeral song or lament for the dead.

vi. A sonnet:

A sonnet is a fixed form of a lyric poetry that consists of fourteen lines.

vii. Free verse:

Free verse is a form of poetry that refrain from consistent meter patterns, rhymes or any other musical patterns.

viii. Blank verse:

A blank verse is a poetry written with unrhymed patterns. Example is Paradise Lost by John Milton

ix. Shape poem or concrete poem:

A shape poem takes the shape of the object it describes. It is more for the eyes than for the brain or emotions.

x. Imagist poetry (Haiku):

An imagist poetry or haiku is a three line poetry that originated in Japan.