Fragment Friday - The Poetry Forms Edition

Rain does make the flowers grow...

Five Poetry Forms for you to try.

1.  Cento

"From the Latin word for “patchwork," the cento (or collage poem) is a poetic form made up of lines from poems by other poets. Though poets often borrow lines from other writers and mix them in with their own, a true cento is composed entirely of lines from other sources. Early examples can be found in the work of Homer and Virgil."

Example 

or see my example from February made up entirely of first lines of poems - Poem.

2.  Another type of 'stolen' poem is the Found Poem.

"Found poems take existing texts and refashion them, reorder them, and present them as poems. The literary equivalent of a collage, found poetry is often made from newspaper articles, street signs, graffiti, speeches, letters, or even other poems."

Example

or peruse the Found Poetry Review for more information.

3. Abecedarian

"The abecedarian is an ancient poetic form guided by alphabetical order. Generally each line or stanza begins with the first letter of the alphabet and is followed by the successive letter, until the final letter is reached."

Example

 

4.  Elegy

Elegy

"In traditional English poetry, it is often a melancholy poem that laments its subject’s death but ends in consolation." In modern form, a lament mourning the end of something, not necessarily a person. 

Example 

5.  Ekphrasis 

"Ekphrastic poems usually focus only on works of art—usually paintings, photographs, or statues. And modern ekphrastic poems have generally shrugged off antiquity’s obsession with elaborate description, and instead have tried to interpret, inhabit, confront, and speak to their subjects."

Example 

or see my poem "Lamentation" and discussion over at Parallel Oonahverse

*definitions of poem forms from poets.org