History: Abhang, or Abhanga, is a form of devotional poetry sung in praise of the Hindu god Vitthala also known as Vithoba. It was popular from the 13th thru 17th centuries Marathi Region of India. The word "abhang" comes from a for "non-" and bhang for "ending" or "interrupting", in other words, a flawless, continuous process, [...]
History: The Acrostic is a poetry form with a long history, used in the Hebrew Bible, The Book of Lamentations, throughout the medieval period by poets such as Middle High German poet Rudolf von Ems to spell either their name or the name of their patron, and the Renaissance to spell out secret messages. The word comes [...]
History: Pronounced 'aye, freshly' as in "has this room been painted?" "aye, freshly" (booo hisssss, baaad pun)...this is an Irish syllabic, quatrain stanza form. There is so much to say about Celtic Forms that we really should do a full post on it. So we will: check out the post on our favorite masochistic poetry past [...]
History: An alexandroid takes its name from the alexandrine that it is composed of. An Alexandrine is a name used for several verse line types, most of which consist of two hemistichs (half-lines) of six syllables each, separated by a caesura (a word break, though it's a bit more than that...more on that later). As far [...]
History: The Allitersen is an invented form (can we discuss for a second the absurdity of that term? What, were ballades created by the Big Bang along with the rocks and the platypus?) created by Udit Bhatia and debuted on Shadow Poetry. Structure: The Allitersen actually seems more complicated than it is, due to the [...]
History: The Alouette is a form created by Jan Turner on the poetry community site Shadow Poetry some time around 2008/2009. The form name means 'Skylark' in French, and also can mean a children's song sung in a group. Structure: 2 or more stanzas 6 lines per stanza Meter: 5, 5, 7, 5, 5, 7 [...]
History: Amanda's Pinch is a form created by Amanda Norton on AllPoetry.com, and we're still trying to find the original source page for this. Structure: stanza of 8 lines syllable count 12/12/10/8/8/10/12/12 Rhyme Scheme abcDDcba Line 5 repeats line 4 Alliteration is required in every line poem should be centered on the page: this is [...]
History: Amaranth is a form created by Viola Berg as a teaching tool in her 1977 book Pathways for the Poet. That's what we've been able to find so far, second hand, as we have yet to lay our grubby little hands on the book itself. So far the only source online for this information [...]
History: The Amphion is another poetry form attributed to Viola Berg and her 1977 book Pathways for the Poet which we have yet to read and find. Structure: a poem of 10 lines. Lines 1, 4, 7, and 10 are tetrameter (4 beats), and they alternate with couplets in dimeter (2 beats) Rhymed, rhyme scheme [...]
History: The Andaree is a contemporary "invented" form created by Andrea Dietrich on the website PoetrySoup in Feb, 2015. Structure: syllable count of 11-9-7-5-3-1-3-5-7-9-11 rhyme scheme of AabbcbcbbaA Line 1 is repeated in line 11 the poem is to be centered Source: https://www.poetrysoup.com/poetry/contests/andaree_-_11_lines_13753