Poetry captures feeling with artful words. By carefully choosing language, pictures, and sound, poets express beauty, sadness, passion, and truth in a way that grabs people. For thousands of years, from ancient epic tales to modern social media poems, creative verses speak to what makes us human. Poetry can follow rules of form or write freely, but it continues to touch the heart. Its short lines pack a powerful punch. Through good times and bad, poetry shares innermost joys and pains. This meaningful art survives the test of time.
Classical Poetry
Classical poetry refers to ancient Greek and Roman poems that have stood the test of time. It can also describe more recent poems written in a style that emulates the ancient classics.
- Homer (Ancient Greek Epic)
- Virgil (Roman Epic)
- Ovid (Roman Epic)
- Dante Alighieri (Italian Epic)
- Geoffrey Chaucer (English Medieval)
- John Milton (English Epic)
- William Wordsworth (Romantic)
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Romantic)
- Lord Byron (Romantic)
- Percy Bysshe Shelley (Romantic)
- John Keats (Romantic)
- William Blake (Romantic)
Modernist Poetry
Modernist poetry, written between 1890 and 1950, developed out of a tradition of lyrical expression, emphasizing the personal imagination, culture, emotions, and memories of the poet. It was a reaction against the prevailing Enlightenment ideas of the 18th century and involved a re-evaluation of the assumptions and aesthetic values of the time.
- T.S. Eliot (Modernist)
- Ezra Pound (Modernist)
- W.B. Yeats (Modernist)
- Wallace Stevens (Modernist)
- H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) (Modernist)
- Langston Hughes (Harlem Renaissance)
- Robert Frost (Modernist)
- Marianne Moore (Modernist)
Contemporary Poetry
Contemporary poetry is a style that follows a specific series of traits and literary tools, such as inconsistent meter and variations upon standard rhyme. Poets writing in this style allow their ink to place a unique sense of self upon the words, making every poet’s story special
- Maya Angelou (Contemporary)
- Allen Ginsberg (Beat Generation)
- Sylvia Plath (Confessional)
- Anne Sexton (Confessional)
- Robert Lowell (Confessional)
- Seamus Heaney (Contemporary)
- Derek Walcott (Contemporary)
- Ted Hughes (Contemporary)
- Adrienne Rich (Contemporary)
- Louise Glück (Contemporary)
- Rita Dove (Contemporary)
- Lang Leav (Contemporary)
- Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (Contemporary)
Romantic Poetry
Romantic poetry is characterized by its focus on sentiments, emotions, and imagination. It opposed the objectivity of neoclassical poetry and rebelled against the style of the 18th century. It was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe at the end of the 18th century and lasted until around 1850.
- William Wordsworth (Romantic)
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Romantic)
- Lord Byron (Romantic)
- Percy Bysshe Shelley (Romantic)
- John Keats (Romantic)
- William Blake (Romantic)
Victorian Poetry
Victorian poetry, written in England during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901), was a significant period in the history of poetry. It was characterized by a distinct sensibility, verbal embellishment, mystical interrogation, brooding skepticism, and whimsical nonsense. These poets continued many of the themes of the previous era, such as religious skepticism and the valorization of the artist as a genius, while also developing their own unique style. The Victorian period provided a significant development of poetic ideals and had a lasting influence on later modern poets.
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Victorian)
- Robert Browning (Victorian)
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Victorian)
- Christina Rossetti (Victorian)
- Matthew Arnold
- Gerard Manley Hopkins
- Oscar Wilde
Metaphysical Poetry
Metaphysical poetry, which was at its peak during the 17th century in England, is characterized by the use of elaborate figurative language, original conceits, paradoxes, and philosophical topics. It is marked by its highly intellectualized and ambiguous nature, employing strange imagery, frequent paradoxes, and complex thought.
- John Donne (Metaphysical)
- George Herbert (Metaphysical)
- Andrew Marvell (Metaphysical)
- Henry Vaughan
Beat Generation Poetry
Beat Generation poetry emerged in the 1940s and 1950s as a literary subculture movement that rejected mainstream values and sought to express genuine lived experiences. The movement was influenced by various factors, including jazz music, Zen Buddhism, and the exploration of American and Eastern religions
- Allen Ginsberg (Beat Generation)
- Jack Kerouac (Beat Generation)
- Lawrence Ferlinghetti (Beat Generation)
- William S. Burroughs
Haiku and Japanese Poetry
Haiku is a type of Japanese poetry that consists of short, rhyming verses containing only 17 syllables per verse. It is characterized by its simplicity, use of natural imagery, and the ability to evoke emotions and ideas in a concise manner. Haiku often focuses on themes such as nature, love, and the fleeting nature of time. The term “haiku” was coined by the Japanese poet Masaoka Shiki in the 19th century and literally means “verse of 17 syllables”.
Japanese poetry is deeply rooted in the country’s rich cultural history and often explores themes such as nature, spirituality, and the human condition.
- Matsuo Basho (Haiku)
American poetry
Other Types
Epic Poetry
Long narrative poems that often depict heroic deeds and adventures.
- Homer (for “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey”)
- Virgil (for “The Aeneid”)
- John Milton (for “Paradise Lost”)
Ode
A lyrical poem that expresses strong feelings of admiration or reverence, often directed towards a person, place, or abstract concept.
- John Keats (known for his odes, such as “Ode to a Nightingale” and “Ode to Autumn”)
- Pindar (a classical Greek poet known for his odes)
Villanelle
A structured poem consisting of 19 lines with a specific rhyming scheme, known for its repeated lines and intricate structure.
- Dylan Thomas (for “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”)
- Sylvia Plath (for “Mad Girl’s Love Song”)
Elegy
A poem that mourns the death of a person or reflects on themes of mortality and loss.
- Thomas Gray (for “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”)
- W. H. Auden (for “In Memory of W. B. Yeats”)
Acrostic
A poem in which the initial letters of each line or stanza spell out a word, name, or message.
- Edgar Allan Poe (for “Elizabeth,” an acrostic poem)
Ghazal
A form of poetry with rhyming couplets and a refrain, commonly used to express love and other intense emotions in Arabic and Persian literature.
- Rumi (a Persian poet known for his ghazals)
- Mirza Ghalib (a prominent Urdu and Persian ghazal poet)
Sestina
A highly structured poem consisting of six stanzas, each with six lines, where the end-words of the lines in each stanza follow a specific pattern.
- Dante Alighieri (for “A Sestina about a Sestina”)
- Ezra Pound (for “Sestina Altaforte”)
Cinquain
A five-line poem with a specific syllable pattern (2, 4, 6, 8, 2) often used for concise expression.
- Adelaide Crapsey (credited with popularizing the cinquain)
Tanka
A form of Japanese poetry with a 5-7-5-7-7 syllable pattern, traditionally used to express emotions and observations.
- Matsuo Basho (known for his tanka in addition to haiku)
Petrarchan Sonnet
A sonnet with a specific rhyme scheme (typically ABBAABBA CDCDCD or ABBAABBA CDECDE), popularized by Petrarch.
- Petrarch (for his Italian sonnets, which influenced the form)
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning (for her sonnet sequence “Sonnets from the Portuguese”)
Terza Rima
A rhyme scheme consisting of tercets (three-line stanzas) where the second and third lines of each stanza rhyme with the first and third lines of the next stanza.
- Dante Alighieri (for “The Divine Comedy,” which uses terza rima)
Quatrain
A four-line stanza or poem with various rhyme schemes.
- William Blake (known for his quatrains in “Songs of Innocence and Experience”)
- Robert Frost (used quatrains in many of his poems)
Pantoum
A poem with a specific structure where each line of a stanza is repeated in the next stanza, with the second and fourth lines of each stanza becoming the first and third lines of the next.
- Victor Hugo (for “Pantoum of the Miserable”)
Epigram
A short, witty, and often satirical poem or saying.
- Alexander Pope (known for his satirical epigrams)
- Oscar Wilde (famous for his witty epigrams)
Narrative Poetry
Poetry that tells a story, often with characters, plot, and a narrative structure.
- Geoffrey Chaucer (for “The Canterbury Tales”)
- Edgar Allan Poe (for “The Raven” and other narrative poems)