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

History: The KatautaHistory: The Katauta is a lesser known Japanese form of poetry, traditionally called Waka and, as a term, means poetry fragment. The form specifically is written as half of an exchange with a lover and when paired with another Katauta, is called a Sedoka. So, a Katauta is half a Sedoka. The other...Read More

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 Lai is a tough poetry type to nail down the ins and outs of, as it’s been branded mostly obsolete since the 16th century and is now only interesting to poetry ubernerds (cough cough). The Lai is an Old French form originating in the 13th century. The oldest lais are attributed to Marie...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

History: The Naneelu, also called the Naani, also called the Nali, is a form of Telegu poetry introduced by Sahitya Akademi Award winner Professor N. Gopi in 2002 in his book Naneelu: The Little Ones. Structure: In his own words: “Naneelu are short poems, not very short though. Everyone of them is neither needlessly compact nor...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