Beyond the Acrostic: Exploring the Complexities of Poetic Forms
My first exposure to poetry was the classic acrostic poem. It is a simple form, where each letter of each new line spells out a word or message vertically. I started by writing out my name and finding one or two words that started with each letter to describe myself. I then branched out into writing acrostics for my classmates, objects, any word I could think of—going from simple words to more sophisticated phrases. Thus began my journey with poetry.
While the acrostic is a great way to start due to its approachable nature, there are so many incredible forms of poetry out there that are worth exploring. Whether it is strictly structured or leaning more towards free verse, here are some other forms of poetry to take note of.
ABECEDARIAN
First, the abecedarian. As the name suggests, an abecedarian poem is one where each line begins with a letter of the alphabet, followed by its successive letter. The first line would begin with an ‘a,’ the second would begin with a ‘b,’ and so on until one reaches the end of the alphabet. While this may seem a lot like the acrostic, the abecedarian can be deceptively challenging, especially when one gets to letters like ‘x’ and ‘y’ because not only must one find a word that starts with those letters, but it also has to make sense relative to the rest of the poem.
Many poems follow the abecedarian form, but one of the most famous is Psalm 118 (or 119 in the King James Version). There are twenty-two eight-line stanzas, each beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
Another form of poetry is the tanka, a Japanese form of poetry that is similar to the haiku. In Japanese, the word tanka translates to “short song.” Like the haiku, it follows the 5/7/5 syllable format initially—however, the tanka expands on this, with its full structure being 5/7/5/7/7. In total, the tanka consists of thirty-one syllables, traditionally broken into five lines.
Two great examples of the tanka include Tada Chimako’s A Spray of Water: Tanka and Masaoka Shiki’s Tanka 06; both authors are critically acclaimed and major figures in tanka poetry.
GHAZAL
Next is the ghazal. Originating in Arabic and Persian literature, the ghazal traditionally expresses themes of loss and romantic love but has evolved to explore a variety of topics. There are two major rules to a ghazal. First, it must contain five or more couplets. Second, it must have a rhyme or a repeated refrain, with the first couplet having that rhyme or refrain at the end of both lines, and all other couplets following it only having the rhyme or refrain at the end of the second line.
Agha Shahid Ali’s “Tonight” is a beautiful example of this complexity.
FREE VERSE
Free verse has become an increasingly popular form of poetry, but its cousin, blank verse, is also worth trying. Like free verse, blank verse does not rhyme. However, it does have a set meter, which is almost always iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter refers to an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, measured to be five metrical feet. Blank verse is commonly used in English plays, with the first known use being in Henry Howard’s translation of Aeneid, and literary historian Paul Fussell estimated that about three-quarters of all English poetry is written in this form.
Last but not least, the sestina. The sestina is widely regarded as one of the hardest, most complex poetic forms to tackle—a challenge worth taking up for those who dare. Consisting of thirty-nine lines, six stanzas, and an envoi (a short summation in used French poetic forms), the sestina revolves around the repetition of the six end words of the first stanza.
Elizabeth Bishop was a master of the sestina, and her famous pieces “Sestina” and “A Miracle for Breakfast” are great to analyze for those who want to hone their skills further.
Isabel Gan is a high school student from Southern California. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of Paper Cranes Literary along with editing for a number of other literary magazines, and her work appears in The Greyhound Journal and Fleeting Daze Magazine. When not writing, she loves playing the piano, reading up on composers' biographies, and hot soup on rainy days.
