How to Write a Form Poem

Since most contemporary poetry is written in free verse, very few people have experience crafting a poem that fulfills the requirements of a form. Learning about different forms and trying them out is a great exercise for the mind and great practice for free verse poets.

Things You'll Need

• List of forms with instructions (see resources below)

Instructions

Find Your Form

1. 

   There are many poetic forms, for example, the sonnet, pantoum, sestina, villanelle and many many more. You will need to find a decent list of forms, either online or in a book. "The Book of Froms" by Lewis Turco is highly recommended.

2. 

   Identify the rules and requirements of the form you have chosen. Does it have to adhere to a particular rhyme scheme, syllabic count, accent count, verse foot (iambic, trochaic and so on) or line length? Does it require repeated lines, like a villanelle, or repeated end words like a sestina. Formal poetry is chanllenging If possible. Read a few examples of poems written in your form to see how the masters have dealt with those challenges.

3. 

   Fulfilling a form does not a poem make. Decide what you want your poem to be about. Be as specific as possible. Jot down some ideas and details you want to include so you don't forget them later when you are concentrating on the form.

4. Create a template for your poem on the page. If your form requires a certain number of lines, number the lines in the left-hand column. Consider each requirement separately. Try starting with the rule that sounds hardest, even if this means you are building your poem from bottom to top.

5. Read your poem over and revise. Have you fulfilled all of the form's requirements? Have you written something coherent, expressive or funny? Revising is different for everyone. Some poets revise endlessly, claiming their poems are never "finished." Try not to overanalyze or criticize your work too much.

Tips & Warnings

• If your form requires the repetition of a certain word or words, choose a word with multiple meanings. Consult a thesaurus or rhyming dictionary. If you get stuck, set the poem aside and come back to it another time.

• Don't get too frustrated or discouraged. If you don't like the outcome of your poem, consider it an exercise. If you need to break the form to maintain the integrity of your content, do so. It's not cheating.

References

• The Academy of American Poets exhaustive list of forms
• Even more forms from Shadow Poetry

Resources

• Poetry Foundation search tool
• A slightly different approach to forms
• The Book of Forms by Lewis Turco