Crafting Poems in Form: Rhyme, Meter, Fixed Forms, and More

Find freedom in form! Working within the guidelines of a fixed poetic structure — from sonnets to less familiar forms like ghazals or triolets — can make your poetry more creative, not less. Solving the unique puzzles these forms create will push your writing in surprising new directions.

In this eight-week course, we’ll explore a wide range of received forms like villanelles, pantoums, sestinas, terza rima, and more. You’ll learn how these forms work, and read a wide range of examples. We will look at some classic poems, but our focus will be on contemporary poetry and how these traditional forms work today.

Moreover, we’ll demystify the language of rhyme and meter: you’ll learn what terms like “iambic pentameter,” “trochaic octameter,” and “slant rhyme” are all about, why they’re not nearly as confusing as they sound, and how you can use them in your own poems. We’ll talk about meter in the context of free-verse poems too: even when writing poems without a fixed meter, understanding what’s going on metrically can help you figure out why a line sounds especially good, or why it sounds off, and adjust accordingly.

Further, we’ll look at alternative approaches to meter: in addition to accentual-syllabic verse (the most familiar form of meter, used by everyone from Shakespeare to Robert Frost), we’ll discuss accentual verse (the dominant mode in Old English poems like Beowulf) and syllabic verse.

Each week will involve reading a written lecture exploring various forms and examples of each. You will write one poem per week in a different forms of your choice, and will provide workshop feedback on other students’ poems. I will give detailed, line-by-line feedback on all poems, with suggestions for revision. 

Who This Course is For:

This course is for poets who write in all styles! Few contemporary poets write only formal poems. Most poets who write in form today also write in free verse, and the lessons learned from exploring formal poetry will apply to all poems you’ll go on to write–both formal and free.

This course is recommended for students who have an active poetry practice or who have previously taken an introductory course in poetry. 

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

In this course, you will learn to:

• Explore a wide range of poetic forms.
• Demystify metrical terms and understand how to apply metrical thinking to your poems, both formal and free verse.
• Explore what makes rhyme work well, without sounding forced or singsong.
• Survey alternative metrical approaches like accentual verse and syllabic verse.

Writing Goals

In this course you will: 

• Write eight new poems, each in a different form.
• Receive detailed feedback on each, with ideas for revision (to be completed outside the course if desired).

Weekly Syllabus

Week 1: Regular Meter – Accentual-Syllabic Verse

This unit takes a deep dive into accentual-syllabic verse, the most traditional type of meter in English. We will also compare it to free-verse, poetry with no fixed rhyme or meter.

Assignment: Write a poem in blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter).

Week 2: Adding Rhyme Schemes

Still working in accentual syllabic verse, we’ll look at what makes for effective rhyme, and explore a selection of frequently used rhyme schemes (e.g., heroic couplets, terza rima, ABAB and ABAC quatrains).

Assignment: Write a poem in a regular meter of your choice, in a regular rhyme scheme of your choice.

Week 3: Sonnets

The most famous received form, sonnets take the requirements of a regular accentual-syllabic meter and a regular rhyme scheme, and add the additional constraints of a fixed number of lines and a twist called a “volta.” We’ll look at several types of sonnets and read a range of examples.

Assignment: Write an English, Italian, or Spenserian sonnet.

Week 4: Alternative Meters: Accentual Verse and Syllabic Verse

Accentual-syllabic verse is the most familiar type of meter in English, but it’s not the only way to approach meter. We’ll look at two alternate approaches: accentual verse (including other elements of Old English verse) and syllabic verse (including specific syllabic forms like haiku and cinquains).

Assignment: Write a poem in accentual verse or in syllabic verse.

Week 5: Fixed Forms with Refrains: Pantoum and Sestina/Tritina

This week focuses on fixed forms built around repeated lines or words.

Assignment: Write a pantoum, a sestina, or a tritina.

Week 6: Fixed Forms with Refrains and Rhymes: Villanelle, Triolet, and Ghazal

This week focuses on fixed forms built around repeated lines/words, plus a rhyme scheme.

Assignment: Write a villanelle, triolet, or ghazal.

Week 7: Borrowing and Adapting – Golden Shovels, Centos, Pecha Kucha, Found Poems, and Erasures

This week looks at poetic forms that borrow or adapt from other pieces of writing in some way. We’ll look at golden shovels (poems where the last word of each line forms a preexisting poem by another writer), centos (poems where each line is borrowed from a different writer’s poem), pecha kucha (a Japanese presentation format adapted into poetry), and found poems (poems in which a preexisting piece of non-literary prose is made into poetry), and erasures (like a found poem with redactions).

Assignment: Write a poem in one of the forms discussed this week, or a form of your own invention that borrows/adapts in some way.

Week 8: A Brief Look Toward Everything Else

There are many more poetic forms out there — we’ll do a survey of several, with suggestions for further reading. Forms include: abecedarians, gigans, monostiches, list poems, and more.

Assignment: Write a poem in one of the forms discussed this week, or in another form of your choosing (be sure to explain what it is!)

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