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Poetic Meter: A Complete Reference ManualPoetic Meter: A Complete Reference Manual
Earlier in the week ^Beccalicious posted an A-Z of Poetry Forms which received a great response from the community. This time around, we're bringing you a comprehensive list of meter. Even later in the week, *LaBruyere will be bringing you a guide on how to make your fixed form poetry a reality. This article is a (complete as can be) reference for reliable patterns of poetic meter with a widely-accepted method of scansion used to define them. This article is intended for those who have somewhat of a grasp on what fixed form is! So before we dive into the article know what you're in for (lots of terminology and patterns). Here are some terms and symbols you should be aware of:
Prosody Terminology
Caesura - A complete pause within a line of poetry, sometimes provoked by a mark of punctuation.
Cola -

How-to: The SestinaThe what?
The sestina is a fairly old poetic form, dating back to the 12th century or earlier. (This isn’t a history lesson, so we won’t delve into its creator and evolution.) It has seven stanzas, the first six of which have six lines each. The seventh stanza is a tercet (three lines) to tie it all together. All 39 of these lines are usually in iambic pentameter, although they don’t have to be (more on that later). That’s the basic structure - but of course that’s not all there is to it.
The real challenge of the sestina comes from the line endings. Rather than using rhyming words like many poems, sestinas contain six fixed line-ending words. That is, the words at the end of each line of the first stanza (six of them) are then used to end every line in the poem. Based on the original order they’re in (1 2 3 4 5 6), the words follow a specific pattern throughout the other stanzas:
First stanza: 1 2 3 4 5 6
Second: 6

Project Educate: Haiku, Senryu, Tanka, and RengaAs part of Poetry Forms week at #projecteducate, we wanted to go into a bit of detail regarding some of the more well-known Eastern forms of writing. The same way there are many forms of Western poetry, there are many forms of Eastern poetry, and ultimately this article will barely begin to scrape the surface of even the forms that it actually touches on, but within this article, there are links to resources that delve further into the subject matter, and all are worth reading if the subject interests you.
Haiku & Senryu

Haiku, in the classical Japanese sense, is a small poem comprised of 17 characters known as on (sometimes onji). These characters each represent one unit of sound, and each unit of sound has its own meaning which then contributes to the overall haiku. The 17 on are split into phrases of 5, 7, and 5, which is where the most commonly know

The Ghazal: An IntroductionGhazals
The ghazal is a widely-used but poorly-understood poetic genre and style, originating in panegyric Arabic verse and adapted (approximately) into contemporary English poetry. In this article I will be touching on the history of the ghazal, its original Arabic form, and the various ways it's been adapted into English. I will also be spotlighting some great ghazals from deviantART and around the 'net.
Please note that the English ghazal, like English haiku, has a handful of forms and aesthetics and no one is more "right" than others; for less confusion I am sticking to the better-known aesthetics in this treatment, and especially to those more frequently seen in literary magazines. Feel free to chime in on the comments with anything you'd like to add regarding other aesthetics.
The Arabic Ghazal
Arabic ghazals ( غزليات - ghazaliyyat ) have been around a long time, much longer t

SonnetsSonnets
This article aims to give you an outline of sonnets, including what they are, their history and some examples of the different kinds of sonnet. Hopefully along the way you'll pick up some tips to help you write sonnets (or write better sonnets!).
What is a sonnet?
Sonnets feature:
Fourteen linesFixed metreFixed rhyme schemeA shift in mood or perspective during the poem
Sonnets are short poems which traditionally have 14 lines, a fixed metre and a fixed rhyme scheme. Despite, or perhaps because of, the formal constraints of sonnets, they often deal with themes of emotions, love, and freedom. The name ‘sonnet’ comes from the Italian meaning ‘little sound’ or ‘little song’

Sonnets usually have two sections; a proposition or argument followed by an answer, solution, or a different way of looking at the original issue. In this, sonnets a

Yes You Can!Yes You Can!
Helpful Hints On Reading and Discussing Poetry
Contest Information Below!
Hi! Welcome to #projecteducate’s week on poetry forms. I’m here to talk about poetry in more general terms, which might help you with the rest of the week. As a great lover of poetry, it makes me incredibly sad when I see a comment on dA that says
I just don’t get poetry
or
I like this poem, but I don’t know why
or
I can’t possibly say anything about this poem, it’s just so much better than I could do
If you can see yourself in any of those comments, this article is for you! By the end of it, you’ll have some idea of what to think about when reading and later commenting on a poem, as well as the opportunity to win some points in a contest. Obviously no article is going to teach you “eve

Project Educate: Free Verse`KathrynODriscoll's interview of `thetaoofchaos and =AzizrianDaoXrak in regards to Free Verse Poetry. Held on March 6th at 8:28 at Project Educate Studios, L.A.
[ begin transmission ]
`KathrynODriscoll: *taps the microphone* is this thing on?
`thetaoofchaos: I can hear you, loud and clear!
=AzizrianDaoXrak:

`KathrynODriscoll: Oh. We’re on. Okay. Hello and welcome to Project Educate’s exclusive interview with Free-Verse brainiacs `thetaoofchaos and =AzizrianDaoXrak! Today we are going to discuss free verse poetry, what that means and some great examples of it, and some of the issues it creates. We are also going to finally hear the latest news on Shane’s upcoming album “I never touched her” and talk about what it’s like backstage with One Direction and find out the exclusive gossip on Azi’s infamous Vegas wedding to Richard Armitage!
=AzizrianDaoXrak

Breaks: Slam and StyleTo some people, poetry is a quiet medium. It rests on a page. It lies there. It slumbers.
Slam is different.
Slam is about shouting.
Slam, or spoken word poetry, is poetry that is... well... spoken. It might be poetry that doesn’t make sense unless it’s spoken out loud; it may be poetry that just, like Andrea Gibson or Shane Koyczan’s work, sounds better that way. Long poems are difficult; people tend to get tangled up in them. Slam poetry is, in my mind, the contemporary solution for epic poems – it breaks down five-minute sagas into swells of voice, and by doing so guides you through something that it might tire your eyes or mind too much to read.
But slam presents a unique set of challenges to the writer, one of which is that, in writing for an aural audience instead of the usual visual one, the ‘traditional’ method of line breaks is eschewed. It no longer makes sense to break in the places that

Why Form?Be not the first by whom the new are tried,
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.
—Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism
The history of poetry reminds me of standing knee-deep in the water at the beach. Though you are continually in the water, you are able to feel movement after movement, wave after wave rolling in. You can feel the receding water sucking the sand from beneath your feet, but with the coming of each new wave, you need never fear being sucked into the miry ground. So it is with poetry. There's something intrinsic to poetry—the joy of prosody, of the delightful placement of words, and of the novel communication of ideas—that it keeps bringing wave after wave, generation after generation of poets and styles and forms.
Let me take you back...
I cannot say what came first: poetry or music or storytelling. But I do know that the day man found that he could piece together words evoking

Beauty in Structure: Form PoetryBeauty in Structure: A How-To of Form Poetry
There was once a time in which I despised free verse poetry for its lack of structure. It takes no talent to write this, I thought. Now, being an intelligent and rational adult I recognize that free verse has its merits. I even write in it occasionally, and it seems to be the default of many budding poets. But what is it about form poetry that makes beginning poets afraid of it? Perhaps the same thing that makes it so much better than free verse poetry, to me. And while many of you may understand the ins and outs of form poetry, especially as a result of this past week, it takes a little more work to apply it.
To that end, I wish to explain and explore some of my favorite methods of binding myself to structure--specifically meter. There is much more to writing form poetry than merely rhyming the words on the ends of the lines. And despite that "confine" and "bind" sound like negative wo

The VillanelleSo, form poetry.
Daunting, right?
I never thought I would be a poet. I was a story-teller, a writer of fiction, a female Hemingway for the new era.
And then I took my first university writing class.
And fell in love with writing poetry. Free form, flowing, no-holds-barred, no-need-for-rhyme poetry.
So, how did I come to fall in love with writing form poetry?
Form poetry pushes me, personally, as a writer. When it comes to creating something specifically to put it in a box, I am a perfectionist. And, perhaps in this case, that's a good thing.
The first poetry form I had to use in college was the villanelle:
Refrain 1
Line 2
Refrain 2
Line 4
Line 5
Refrain 1
Line 7
Line 8
Refrain 2
Line 10
Line 11
Refrain 1
Line 13
Line 14
Refrain 2
Line 16
Line 17
Refrain 1
Refrain 2
There are five tercets and a concluding quatrain. The refrains must rhyme.
Mad Girl's Love Song by Sylvia Plath
"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my l

PE: Interview with some dA Haiku MastersHello all
As part of this weeks #projecteducate, we have interviewed two members whose work is almost entirely focussed on fixed form poetry- and in this instance Eastern Poetry.
In my early deviantART days, Eastern poetry writing went through a popular phase. There were regular HaikuWriMo months, challenges and clubs; some of which still continue in their own ways. Two members who have continued that popularity and developed their skills in these forums are `jade-pandora and *moyanII- both owners of a huge collection of Eastern poetry, DD's and beautiful creative writing. Both these delightful deviants have taken the time to share their experiences in this interview.

`jade-pandora was born in Los Angeles, California. She started writing seriously in 2001, joined deviantArt in 2003, and in 2007 discovered dA’s literature community when she stumbled into the HaikuWriMo of October 2007. Her fascination with Haiku dre

PE: Poetry Forms- An A-Z An A-Z of Poetry Forms!
Hello!
To kick start this week at #projecteducate, we're starting off with a slightly lighter-hearted article listing just some of the poetic forms that exist out there. Lets be honest, there are hundreds and we can't list every single one. This is just a slice of the forms out there and if you are wishing to expand your understanding of different forms, do some research and don't take this as gospel!
Each form has a direct link to a site that describes the form in more detail, usually with examples too. I have also included some good examples from dA when I have found them.
Yes some of these link to wikipedia!
A
ABC- A poem where each word, line or stanza starts with the next continuous letter of the alphabet. Also known as an "Abcedarian"

<b>

France's Fancy Fixed Forms: Rondeau and FriendsFrance's Fancy Fixed Forms: The Rondeau (& Friends)
:iconlegaspplz: Ah, the French. Their proud romantic culture has provided us with a wealth of artistic innovation: a wide range of cheeses and pastries; the Louvre, Versailles, and the iconic Eiffel Tower; and some memorable poetic forms, including the ballade, the villanelle, and today's subject: the rondeau (ron-DOH).
While not as well-known today as the sonnet or haiku, these French styles have been around just as long, if not longer. The rondeau, like its cousins, has a restricted number of end rhymes (two, usually labeled 'a' and 'b') and a short refrain repeated throughout. This refrain, also known as the rentrement, comes from the first half of the poem's first line.

If you've heard of the rondeau before, chances are it's thanks to the World War I p

PE: Poetry Forms Week!Hello everyone and welcome to Poetry Form’s week on #projecteducate! This is the first of what we hope are several PE weeks for literature this year, broken down into delightful chunks instead of one big week!
We’ve started with poetry forms because we’d like to take the opportunity to look at individual poetry forms and help educate what these forms are truly about. Amongst the miscats of the literature gallery, the forms are often struck quite badly and a little education may help with that situation.
So what exactly do we mean by poetry form?
A poetry form is the set of rules that a style of poem may follow in its creation. This can include syllables, meter, rhyme schemes, themes and layout. Each individual form could have several rules applied to it.
There are a wide variety of poetry forms out there, originating from all over the world, some of which we plan to look at in more detail this week

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PE - SciFaiku Poetry Form

Wed Mar 6, 2013, 4:32 PM

Community Week

What on earth is SciFaiku?

SciFaiku (science fiction haiku) is a minimalist science fiction poetry form similar to traditional haiku. According to Wikipedia (grain of salt guys), the earliest publication of SciFaiku was likely in 1962. It became known officially as SciFaiku in 1995 when the SciFaiku Manifesto was posted up by Tom Brink. _{(At the time of finalizing this article, the website is down; however, I have seen it go down and come back up before, so it's worth saving. They may be having server issues.)}

How does one write SciFaiku?

SciFaiku is written like traditional contemporary haiku, and as such, SciFaiku seeks a sense of immediacy. A capture of a moment. A directness of expression, avoiding abstractions. A good SciFaiku does not make any judgments. Conveying a feeling of immediacy is important. Here's an example:

Digging up an ancient city,

finding the print
of a tennis shoe.

(from scifaiku.com)

Notice the snapshot feel? The author also makes no judgments on this event, but leaves that up to the reader.

SciFaiku "indicator" words

Just like haiku, SciFaiku centers around an "indicator" word. Traditional haiku which uses a "kigo," a word which emphasizes which season a haiku's snapshot takes place:

snow mixes with rain-

my mother keeps calling me

by my brother's name

(Paul David Mena)

"Snow" is the kigo as it indicates that the season is winter.

SciFaiku requires the use of a science fiction "indicator" word. Let's take a look:

more than a planet

does teraforming

form

(possibility.com)

"Teraforming," is a traditional SciFi trope for "new worlds" and so that is your "SciFi kigo." Taking a second look at that first SciFaiku again:

Digging up an ancient city,

finding the print
of a tennis shoe.

What's the "SciFi kigo" here? Well, one does not expect a tennis shoe in an ancient city. Personally, I think that's what makes SciFaiku fun: there's a whole range of play to indicate to your readers that they are reading SciFaiku.

SciFaiku is not a poetic sentence

"..what IS required, is that the total ku doesn't read like a sentence," so while it may have two phrases like our example above, it is not a complete sentence (Sam's Dot Publishing.)

Fun Extras

*SciFaiku can be written in a series. So go ahead, tell a whole story. Example on page 2

*Horrorku is a similar form; like SciFaiku it uses haiku as a basis, but instead of using SciFi for kigos, it is written with horror tropes as kigos. Our local Horrorku group is:

*SciFaiku fits "twitter" guidelines. Milo James Fowler has a list of SciFaiku tweets here.

*SciFaiku, while a young poetry form, does have an audience and there are publishers seeking new submissions. Why not? Places like Sam's Dot Publishing are just waiting for you. The editors are very encouraging and personable--and in a world of terribly busy editors and form rejection letters, it's a very nice change of pace. ~Kiresg

Let's make a "SciFi-kigo" list! Feel free to throw up your suggested additions below.

*Moons, or a moon unlike our own (large or icy, etc).

*Binary suns, or a sun unlike our own (supernova, etc).

*Also works with sunlight/moonlight - ie "red moonlight"

*Spaceship/Star Ship/Space Shuttle/Wormhole/Spacetime/Maneuvering or flying with reference to space objects/Teleport

*Beta Colony/Terraform/"New World"

*The opposite of this is talking about the "Old World" or "Back on Earth" references

*Aliens/Tentacles/Tails/Odd #s of body parts

Many thanks to who allowed me to interview him for his expertise. And since I couldn't have said it any better than him:

When you're writing scifaiku and compelled to follow the rules, always remember: scifaiku gives you license to be a badboy.

So tell me, who else writes SciFaiku? What are your experiences? What have I maybe missed?

Any additional questions about the form? Please ask. I'll answer what I can.

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PE - SciFaiku Poetry Formby `vespera

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*leyghan Mar 10, 2013 Hobbyist Writer

Verrry intriguing. Just might give this a shot.

`vespera Mar 12, 2013 Hobbyist Writer

OH YES

`phoenixleo Mar 8, 2013

Bwahahaha. Even 'kigo' is transformed to sci-fi as 'indicator'

`vespera Mar 12, 2013 Hobbyist Writer

Yea, I don't think there's a formal, established term really for it in SciFaiku, but kigo mostly means "seasonal" so you really can't use that

`phoenixleo Mar 12, 2013

It's just that..I have just recently started to do some haiku for that February Haiku writing month, which I have a backlog and have to finish. Seeing so many other forms of it, and finding out about other forms is interesting. Not to mention, this actually is amusing. Kind of like, evolution at work.

`vespera Mar 14, 2013 Hobbyist Writer

Oh yea, a few months ago when I discovered this I was like... NO WAY!!!! lol

I have a handful of them lurking around, now.

`phoenixleo Mar 14, 2013

I wish schools didn't teach the whole 5 - 7 - 5 mantra everytime haiku were mentioned.
Would have been awesome to see scifaiku in my Writer's Craft class.

`vespera Mar 15, 2013 Hobbyist Writer

oh man, me, too. it's such a lame crutch. I don't even think I learned about Kigo as much as "haikus are about seasons." It seems so backwards to teach 5-7-5 and not the specifics of a kigo.

`phoenixleo Mar 19, 2013

I learned all about Haiku when I found them on dA and the articles and links I found. After reading more, I think I had that "what was I reading all these times? o__O " moment. D:

`vespera Apr 2, 2013 Hobbyist Writer

I had a similar experience - I was taught that haiku isn't *always* 5-7-5, but I wasn't taught specifically about Kigo, just that they're generallay bout nature. Talk about leaving a lot out. Thank god for dA

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