History: KnittelversHistory: Knittelvers, also Knüttelvers or Knittel, can be traced back to Otfrid of Weissenburg “who, using Latin verse as a model, introduced couplets into German verse in the 9th century. From the Middle High German knittel meaning "rhyme", but also knütte or keule meaning “club” because of it’s clumsy, irregular rhythm. Knittelvers was originally a German verse measure...Read More

History: The LannetHistory: The Lannet is an "invented" i.e. new form created by Laura Lamarca, around 2006 from what can be found on the internet, and is regarded as a type of sonnet. Structure: • 14 lines • 10 syllables per line • No end rhymes (only internal rhymes) • no meter or subject matter...Read More

History: The luneHistory: The lune, called and considered the American Haiku, was developed by New York based poet and Bard College professor Robert Kelly in the 1960s when he realized a lot was lost when the Japanese haiku was translated as a form into English, as Japanese words tend to have more syllables than English...Read More

History: LüshiHistory: Lüshi, Wade-Giles romanization lü-shih, is a specific type of Chinese poetry verse form that reached its final codification in the Tang dynasty(618–907), and is considered one of the most important poetry forms in classic Chinese poetry. Lushi is fun, and thick, and has a lot going on in writing it. Structure: An important...Read More

History: Minnesang, Middle High German, comes from minne, meaning love, and sanc, meaning song. The term applies to the German variant of the secular love lyric of the 12th and 13th centuries. In the 12th century, the poets were knights and lower nobility who wrote to unattainable noble women (commonly unattainable because they were married),...Read More

A note on this entry: This is one of those entries continually being worked on, as this is a bit obscure. If the information has made it this far, it has been vetted in various scholarly sources. However, we continue to find new information, the scholarship on this subject is continually under debate, and we...Read More

History: The word ‘Ovillejo’ is the diminutive for ‘Ovillo’ which itself means “clew, ball of string or twine” and, as Mr. Turco says in The Book of Forms, “metaphorically suggests something tight, complicated, and small. It is a Spanish form attributed to and popularized by Miguel de Cervantes. Specifically, in La Ilustre Fregona and chapter XXVII...Read More

History: The PantoumHistory: The Pantoum is a Malaysian poetry form that originated in the 15th century derived from the pantun, specifically from the pantun berkait, a series of interwoven quatrains, which itself originated as a traditional oral form of expression. As it made it's way into the West it was adapted and altered by French poets,...Read More

History The Pleiades was invented in 1999 by Craig Tigerman, Sol Magazine’s Lead Editor. Structure: Only one word is allowed in the title a single seven line stanza a variation on an acrosticHistory This is a fun poetic form and, precisely for that, it is in many cases how we are introduced to poetry in grade...Read More

History: The QasidaHistory: The Qasida is an Pre-Islamic poetry genre/form from developed in Arabia oral tradition in the 6th century rooted in the Bedouin cycles of nomadic desert life, and spread throughout it's historical life into wild varying contexts throughout the Middle East, Africa and Asia. It is often defined as an ode, has a...Read More