Some Complex Poetic Forms Defined
Terza Rima
tercets of 10 or 11 syllables with a rhyme scheme: aba bcb cdc, etc.
Villanelle
The highly structured villanelle is a nineteen-line poem with
two repeating rhymes and two refrains. The form is made up of five
tercets followed by a quatrain. The first and third lines of the
opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the
succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrain serves as the
poem's two concluding lines. Using capitals for the refrains and
lowercase letters for the rhymes, the form could be expressed as: A1
b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2.
(poets.org)
Sestina
The sestina follows a strict pattern of the repetition of the
initial six end-words of the first stanza through the remaining five
six-line stanzas, culminating in a three-line envoi. The lines may be
of any length, though in its initial incarnation, the sestina followed
a syllabic restriction. The form is as follows, where each numeral
indicates the stanza position and the letters represent end-words:
1. ABCDEF
2. FAEBDC
3. CFDABE
4. ECBFAD
5. DEACFB
6. BDFECA
7. (envoi) ECA or ACE
The envoi, sometimes known as the tornada, must also include
the
remaining three end-words, BDF, in the course of the three lines so
that all six recurring words appear in the final three lines. In place
of a rhyme scheme, the sestina relies on end-word repetition to effect
a sort of rhyme.
Rime Royal
stanzas with seven lines in iambic pentameter
rhyming ababbcc
Pantoum
The pantoum consists
of a series of quatrains rhyming ABAB in which the second and fourth
lines of a quatrain recur as the first and third lines in the
succeeding quatrain; each quatrain introduces a new second rhyme as
BCBC, CDCD. The first line of the series recurs as the last line of the
closing quatrain, and third line of the poem recurs as the second line
of the closing quatrain, rhyming ZAZA.
The design is simple:
Line 1
Line 2
Line 3
Line 4
Line 5 (repeat of line 2)
Line 6
Line 7 (repeat of line 4)
Line 8
Continue with as many stanzas as you wish, but the ending stanza
then repeats the second and fourth lines of the previous stanza (as its
first and third lines), and also repeats the third line of the first
stanza, as its second line, and the first line of the first stanza as
its fourth. So the first line of the poem is also the last.
Last stanza:
Line 2 of previous stanza
Line 3 of first stanza
Line 4 of previous stanza
Line 1 of first stanza