Elements of poetry

A literary art form that incorporates rhythm and imagery, poetry is governed by specific rules and has taken a variety of forms over the centuries. As a result, it has a vocabulary all its own. Cast your mind back to those old English lit classes, and see what you can remember!

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Fourteen lines encompass me,
Four and four and three and three.
Milton turned me out with ease;
For Browning, I came from “the Portuguese.”
I can be a poem or song
Of praise to a god or hero strong,
Or show deep reverence or zeal
About a value or ideal.
I am, technically,
A metrical line in poetry,
Blank or free, short or long;
You also find me in a song.
Though I may or may not rhyme,
Sound and rhythm me define.
In a song, I am a verse;
In a poem, a group of lines,
Like a paragraph in prose,
With or without rhymes.
The French think I am fine; I’m loved by Beaudelaire.
Twelve syllables per line, in English I am rare.
Composed of three lines
And seventeen syllables,
From the East I come.
Poem in which the first
Or last letters in
Each line, when read vertically,
Make a message or word.

Date modified: 2020-08-24

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Elements of poetry

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