Types of poetry

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Poetry comes in lots of different shapes and sizes.

Here are some different poem patterns, known as forms:

Limerick. It has five lines. Lines 1, 2 and 5 rhyme. Lines 3 and 4 rhyme. Limericks are often funny.

Free Verse. The lines in this form of poetry don't rhyme and the rhythm or beat of the poem is often not easy to predict.

Haiku. It has three lines. The first has five syll-a-bles (count the beats). The second line has 7 syllables and the third line has 5 syllables.

Acrostic. The first letters of each line spell out a word as you read down.

Sonnet. There are two types of sonnet; the English sonnet (sometimes called the Shakespearean sonnet) and the Italian sonnet (sometimes called the Petrarchan sonnet).

Both are rhyming poems with fourteen lines. Sonnets are often written about love.