Brace Octave

Type: structure, rhyme, stanzaic

Description: an eight-line stanza form with end of line rhyme scheme. There is no meter or line length requirement

Schematic: Rhyme: abbaabba
abbacddc

Poem Length: octave

© Jem Farmer 2008, all rights reserved.

Blues Stanza

Type: structure, meter, repetition, rhyme, stanzaic

Description: a three-line stanza rhymed AAa The second line is a variant (incremental repetition) of the first-line, usually written in iambic pentameter. It is not unusual for the whole poem to be a complaint or lament. Lines are normally broken by a caesure between phrases

Schematic: xX xX xX xX xA
xX xX xX xX xA
xX xX xX xX xa

Meter: iambic pentameter

Stanza Length: 3 lines

© Jem Farmer 2008, all rights reserved.

Blues Sonnet

Type: structure, meter, repetition, rhyme

Description: four blues stanzas followed by a heroic couplet. Like the blues song using blues stanzas, this usually written as a complaint.

Poem Length: 14 lines

© Jem Farmer 2008, all rights reserved.

Blank Verse

Type: structure, meter

Description: usually unrhymed iambic pentameter, but it can equally be any other unrhymed metered verse

© Jem Farmer 2008, all rights reserved.

Ballade Supreme

Type: structure, meter, repetitive, rhyme, isosyllabic

Description: Very much like the ballade, but it is longer with a slightly different rhyme scheme to accommodate the extra lines.

Schematic: ababbccdcD
ababbccdcD
ababbccdcD
ccdcD

Poem Length: 35 lines

© Jem Farmer 2008, all rights reserved.

Ballade Royal

Type: structure, meter, repetition, rhyme, isosyllabic

Description: this is a variant of the ballade using rhyme royal stanzas with four full stanzas rather than the half-stanza envoy. It is usually written in lines of iambic pentameter, but always should be isosyllabic lines.

Schematic: ababbcC ababbcC ababbcC ababbcC

Meter: iambic pentameter

Line length: 10

Stanza Length: 7 lines

Poem Length: 28 lines

© Jem Farmer 2008, all rights reserved.

Ballade

Type: structure, meter, repetition, rhyme, isosyllabic

Description: Syllabic with lines of any single length. (For example: alexandrine or iambic pentameter,) Contains three octaves and a quatrain envoy all turning on three rhymes. A variation uses sestets instead of octaves,

Schematic:

ababbcbC
ababbcbC
ababbcbC
bcbC

There are only three rhymes in all the 28 lines.

The C represents a repeated refrain which ends each division of the poem.

No other rhyme word should be repeated in the entire poem.

Stanza length: octave

© Jem Farmer 2008, all rights reserved.