In this article, we will teach you everything you need to know about poetry form.
Analyzing the poem form is an important part of your poem analysis and here we will show you with tips, tricks and examples how you are guaranteed to get the right result.
If you read this article carefully, this task will be child’s play for you in the next German exam.
Have fun with your studying!
What is the poetic form anyway?
Poems can be assigned to different poetic forms based on certain characteristics. The poem form is a fixed structural scheme that specifies certain properties according to which a poem must be designed in order to belong to this poem form. The properties that determine the form of the poem can be, for example, the meter, the rhyme scheme or the number of verses and stanzas. Less rigid criteria, such as content characteristics, can also be specified by the poem form. In this article we will introduce you to the most important forms of poetry in detail.
IMPORTANT TO KNOW
!! If you want to analyze the poem form of a lyrical text, it is important that you deal with the meter and rhyme scheme of the poem. If you want to refresh your knowledge on these topics, we recommend our articles !!
Poem form – sonnet
The sonnet is one of the most common and popular forms of poetry in German. It is determined by very clear structural characteristics:
- The sonnet consists of 14 verses
- A sonnet usually consists of two stanzas of four lines each, the so-called quartets, and two three-verse stanzas, the tercets
- The basic rhyme scheme of the sonnet is abba abba ccd eed, although this can vary, especially in the tercets
- The meter is not dictated by the form of the poem, but alternating verses, especially iambs (and the Alexandrian composed of iambs), are mostly used
- Quartets and tercets are mostly separated not only visually, but also in terms of content. In addition, an antithetical structure (the structure of opposites) is typical of the sonnet
Poem form – epigram
There are few clear rules that characterize the epigram, also often referred to as a poem. An epigram can interpret events or conditions, pay tribute to a person, or function as a social criticism. It is intended to educate the reader and stimulate thought. An epigram can be witty and wise, or it can be mocking and satirical. It is also characterized by its brevity. An epigram usually consists of an apparent contradiction (expectation) and a surprising interpretation (information).
Poem form – ballad
The peculiarity of the ballad is that it combines elements of epic, poetry and drama and thus forms a mixed form. Exactly which elements these are is not clearly defined. So here we list the most common elements found in most ballads.
Epic Elements:
- The ballad tells a story
- Tension is created (arc of suspense), which culminates in the climax of the story and is resolved in a pointed conclusion
- The story is easy to understand and it is clear where the action takes place and which characters appear in it
Dramatic Elements:
- The action is driven by dialogues, which can also be formulated in direct speech (i.e. in the wording and in quotation marks).
- The ballad can consist of different scenes, between which the action changes without further explanation
- The ballad focuses on the highlights of the story being told and dramatizes what is happening
Lyrical Elements:
- The ballad is written in elaborate and concise language and includes various rhetorical devices
- Various forms of rhyme are used, there is a fixed strophic form and a fixed meter, which can vary from ballad to ballad
- The ballad is atmospheric and expresses feelings
Poetry form – Ode
The ode denotes a stanza-arranged poem written in a solemn and sublime style. Distinguishing between the poetic forms ode and hymn can be difficult, as these types of poems are very similar. Finally, the style of speech in the ode is a little more subdued than that of the hymn. In addition, the ode is characterized above all by some very strict specifications as far as its structure is concerned:
- Ancient meters are mostly used
- The ode is strictly divided into stanzas
- The three most common ode forms in the German language are:
- Alkaeic stanza: four-line stanza consisting of two eleven-syllable, one nine-syllable, and one ten-syllable verse with a censorship after the fifth syllable
- Sapphic stanza: Four-line stanza consisting of three identical verses of eleven syllables and one verse of five syllables
- Asklepiadean stanza: Four-line stanza consisting of two twelve-syllable verses, one seven-syllable verse, and one eight-syllable verse
- Inversion is a stylistic device that is often used in the ode
Poem form – song
The song refers to lyrics that can be sung (singability) or that were made to be sung. In terms of content, the song can deal with everyday as well as religious or socially critical aspects. As far as form and language are concerned, there are no very strict guidelines for the song.
Nevertheless, there are some characteristics that distinguish most songs:
- Rhyme scheme: Cross rhymes are mostly used, occasionally couple rhymes
- Meter: alternating, but often with freedom of filling
- Rhetorical stylistic devices: Often using parallelism to make the song easier to remember
- Consistently the same stanza form throughout the poem
- Stanzas usually consist of four, more rarely six verses
- Sentence and stanza structure mostly agree
- Form and language are kept simple to make the poem understandable to many
- singability
Poem form – elegy
Elegies (from the Latin elegia = mourning song) describe poems with a melancholy mood. Frequent contents of the elegy are death, mourning, loss, longing or transience. In purely formal terms, the elegy is difficult to distinguish from the epigram, as both share very similar characteristics. Like the epigram, the elegy is written in distichs. In addition, the elegy is characterized by a sophisticated style of speech and its artistic form. In addition, it is mostly rhyming.
Poetic form – hymn
The hymn denotes a song of praise and praise, the content of which is solemn and often religious in nature. The praise can, for example, apply to a god, a place, a person, an emotion, or abstract concepts such as «freedom».
The main formal and linguistic features of the anthem are:
- The hymn is written in free rhythms, has no rhyme and mostly without a fixed strophic structure
- The language is expressive and in high style
- Inversions are used as a stylistic device of emphasis
- Neologisms express a particular and immediate condition
- The hymn contains many invocations (request to a holy or divine person)
Finished! These were the most important forms of poetry that you should definitely know. To deepen your knowledge of poetry, you will find exercises and helpful literature on the subject of poetry analysis here.
The most important thing about the poetic form at a glance!
Poems can be assigned to different poetic forms based on certain content-related, formal and linguistic characteristics. We have presented the most important forms of poetry and their characteristics in detail in this article: