History: Previously called Hokku, HaikuHistory: Previously called Hokku, Haiku was given it's name by Masoka Shiki around 1900. Hokku, meaning starting verse, is the opening stanza of a Japanese orthodox collaborative linked poem, renga, or of its later derivative, renku (haikai no renga), and its establishment as an independent verse form is credited to Basho and...Read More

History: According to A History of Old Norse Poetry and Poetics by Margaret Clunies Ross, The HrynhentHistory: According to A History of Old Norse Poetry and Poetics by Margaret Clunies Ross, The Hrynhent ('flowing-rhymed) is widely attributed to Arnórr Þórðarson jarlaskáld, but the claim that he invented or at the very least was the first to use the form...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 RedondillaHistory: The Redondilla is a Spanish, specifically Castillian, stanza form and is the result of the breaking in two at the strophic caesura of the Copla de Arte Menor,  (not to be confused with the Arte Mayor) in the 16th century. (Note: for context, the Copla is another Spanish form, and Arte Menor...Read More

Note: In an effort to get as many forms in here as we can before April, we’re going to get a streamlined entry going here. Check back in later for more elaborate posts, including history etc. The Rhupunt (pronounced hree’-pint) is a Welsh poetry form, of the AwdlAn awdl was originally a poem of indeterminate length with a...Read More