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At last, a simple-to-use guide on poetic forms. This is a must for
any serious poet's reference table!
"Formal" or "classic" poetic forms are simply patterns of stanzas,
syllables, meter and rhyme, and though these patterns that have become
popular over the years (or even centuries), they are not the only ones
available to a poet.
Classic poetry can take any number of forms, each having
guidelines, some of which are more stringent than others. Many of these
are well-known, such as the sonnet, haiku, and villanelle. But you may not
have realized just how many forms are being utilized today. The cleave,
Balassi Stanza, diminished hexaverse, Crapsey cinquain and forty other forms are
described in this new book, "A Poet's Primer- A Guide to Classic Forms."
Jack has always said that you should know the
rules before you purposely break them. Also, it is their
guidelines that makes them different from other forms. A
sonnet, for example, will always have fourteen lines, though
they can be arranged in a number of ways. If you call a
poem a sonnet that has nine lines, you've defeated the purpose
of the label.
In addition to the over 40 forms described in "A Poet's Primer-
A Guide to Classic Forms," Jack discusses rhyme, meter and other poetic jargon.
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