Defintion

The Sapphic stanza, named after Sappho, is a poetic form spanning four lines. The form is three hendecasyllabic lines of trochee, trochee, dactyl, trochee, trochee and a concluding line of dactyl, trochee, known as the Adonic or adonean line. Using "-" for a long syllable, "u" for a short and "x" for an "anceps" (or free syllable):

Example

The Sapphic stanza was imitated in English by Algernon Charles Swinburne in a poem he simply called Sapphics:

Saw the white implacable Aphrodite,

Saw the hair unbound and the feet unsandalled

Shine as fire of sunset on western waters;

Saw the reluctant. . .

Allen Ginsberg also experimented with the form:

Red cheeked boyfriends tenderly kiss me sweet mouthed

under Boulder coverlets winter springtime

hug me naked laughing & telling girl friends

gossip til autumn

Defintion

Sedoka is a Japanese verse form that evolved from ancient songs. They can be mood poems, similar to tanka, or they can tell stories in the manner of a song. Sedoka consist of 6 lines of 5-7-7-5-7-7 syllables respectively. Each 5-7-7 unit is called a katauta. Traditionally, the second katauta says the same thing as the first katauta, although in a different way. In modern English the syllable count is somewhat more flexible, and there is usually a turn, or change in direction, in lines 3 and 5. The turn in line 3 is sharp, and the turn in line 5 is gentle.

Example

Example by Unknown Author:

In Your Absence I write Sedoka...

I write sedoka
to tell you how my love grows
even in your short absence.
Since you went away
two bright red roses have bloomed—
your cat brought home a rabbit.

This morning the rain
left wet puddles on the lawn—
wind damaged the cherry tree.
The afternoon sun
dried the grass and I pruned
the minor garden damage.

Did you know actress
Anne Bancroft passed on Monday,
a youngster—seventy-three.
Thank you for phoning
to let me know you’ll be home on
Saturday for the Art Fair.

I must end this note—
the red rose in the white vase
dropped several petals today.
I place two inside—
write your name and lick the stamp
speeding my letter to you.

Out in the June sky
I see your face in the clouds
of the setting sun just now.
I pause in the dark—
on the horizon full moon
casts your shape to stand near me.

Defintion

A short Japanese style poem, similar to haiku in structure, however, senryû tend to be about human foibles while haiku tend to be about nature, and senryû are often cynical or darkly humorous and satiric while haiku are serious.

Example

The robber,
if I catch,
my own son

Defintion

A highly structured form of poetry consisting of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy (thirty-nine lines). The end words of the first stanza are repeated in varied order as end words in the other stanzas and also recur in the envoy.

Example

The Concord Art Association Regrets
Pam White

    Your entry was not accepted. We regret
    it wasn't (enough for us), a work of love.
    We liked many of the colors on the whole
    but the mass was just something unrelated
    to the rest of our show. We hope your work
    will have a bright future in another place.

    We remember last year you tried to place
    another photograph and it was also with regret
    we turned you down. Though for that particular work
    we found nothing about it (no one could) to love.
    It was obscure and a little upsetting in relation
    to the rest of our show which we look on as a whole.   

    Now you may think us ungenerous. On the whole
    you are probably right, but this is our place
    and we can do what we want whether you relate
    to it or not. However we don't want you to regret
    your association with us. We want you to love
    us, send us money, but please, no more work.
 
    You see right now we need money to work
    on the building we're in. There's a hole
    in the roof and one wall needs all the love
    and attention it can get. Really the place
    needs so much, which all costs. I regret
    to remind you we need more space for related

    works. We're trying to expand and relate
    to lots of different kinds of work
    so different people won't regret
    their visit with us but will see the whole
    beauty and tranquillity of the place
    and come with us, a journey of love

    where people of all races, colors, and creeds love
    to look and bask and of course bring relations,
    friends, and lovers. All are welcome to our place
    here where all the world's magnificent work
    can be shown in its entirety, the whole
    place filled - with your exception, we regret.

    We know you'll love the whole
    work we're doing for this place.
    We can't relate enough our regret.
 
            (Copyright © 1983-2003 by Pam White.)

Defintion

Poetry written in the shape or form of an object. Shape poems do not have to take the form of the object it describes. This form is different than a concrete poem, in that a concrete poem takes the shape of the object it describes.

Example

CHAMPAGNE by Dawn Drickman

Defintion

Sijo is the classic form of unrhymed poetry in Korea. Sijo have three long lines. Each line varies between 14 and 16 syllables, with the middle line often the longest. The first line states a theme, the second line counters it, and the third line resolves the poem.

Example

I will break the back of this long, midwinter night,
Folding it double, cold beneath my spring quilt,
That I may draw out the night, should my love return.

Defintion

Lyric poems that are 14 lines that usually have one or more conventional rhyme schemes.

Example

Into My Own
by Robert Frost

ONE of my wishes is that those dark trees,
So old and firm they scarcely show the breeze,
Were not, as ’twere, the merest mask of gloom,
But stretched away unto the edge of doom.

I should not be withheld but that some day 5
Into their vastness I should steal away,
Fearless of ever finding open land,
Or highway where the slow wheel pours the sand.

I do not see why I should e’er turn back,
Or those should not set forth upon my track 10
To overtake me, who should miss me here
And long to know if still I held them dear.

They would not find me changed from him they knew—
Only more sure of all I thought was true.