1. Introduction to Theories of Form
2. Meter
Background and Structure of Accentual Meter
More Works in Accentual Meter
Easter, 1916 William Butler Yeats
Background and Structure of Accentual Syllabic Meter
More Works in Accentual Syllabic Meter
From Paradise Lost, Book 1, Of Man's First Disobedience, and the Fruit... John Milton
Lines, Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, July 13, 1798 William Wordsworth
Home Burial Robert Frost
Background and Structure of Syllabic Meter
More Works in Syllabic Meter
The Fish Marianne Moore
3. Musical Forms
Background and Structure of the Ballad and the Blues
Our Goodman Traditional
The Unquiet Grave Traditional
More Works in the Ballad
Get Up and Bar the Door Traditional
Ah, Are You Digging On My Grave? Thomas Hardy
During Wind and Rai, Thomas Hardy
Sir John Barleycorn Traditional
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Book IV Samuel Taylor Coleridge
La Belle Dame Sans Merc, John Keats
The Wife of Usher's Well Anonymous
Frankie and Johnny American Traditional
More Works in the Blues
Homesick Blues,
The Weary Blues, Langston Hughes
Refugee Blues, W. H. Auden
An Exercise in the Musical Forms
4. Sonnets and the Rondeau
Background and Structure of the Sonnet
My God, where is that ancient heat towards Thee George Herbert
Petrarch's Rime 140 translations by Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
When my love swears that she is made of truth William Shakespeare
Help me to seek, for I lost it there ThomasWyatt
Surprised by Joy William Wordsworth
To the White Fiends Claude McKay
More Works in the Sonnet
Two loves I have of comfort and despair WilliamShakespeare
When I consider how my light is spent John Milton
Prayer the Churches banquet, Angels age George Herbert
from Holy Sonnets, Batter my heart, three personed God John Donne
from Elegiac Sonnets, Sonnet I, The partial Muse, has from my earliest hours, Charlotte Smith
from Astrophil and Stella, Loving in Truth Sir Phillip Sydney
from Astrophil and Stella, Who will in fairest book of nature know Sir Philip Sydney
from Astrophil and Stella, With how sad steps Sir Philip Sydney
(from Astrophil and Stella?), Leave Me, O Love Sir Phillip Sidney
When in Disgrace with Fortune and Men's Eyes WilliamShakespeare
My Mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun WilliamShakespeare
On the Late Massacre Kate Chopin
When I Consider Kate Chopin
It's Sunday Evening. Pomp holds the receipts... Marilyn Nelson Waniek
Ode to the West Wind Percy Bysse Shelley
More Works in the Rondeau
In Flanders Fields John McCrate
We Wear the Mask, Paul Laurence Dunbar
An Exercise in the Sonnet
5. Couplets
Background and Structure of the Couplet
To the Memory of Mr. Oldham John Dryden
More Works in Couplet Verse
Epistles to Dr. Arbuthnot Alexander Pope
Mac Flecknoe John Dryden
Adam's Curse W. B. Yeats
My Last Duchess Robert Browning
Strange Meeting Wilfred Owen
Downtown Diner Author?
An Exercise in Couplet Verse
6. Sestina
Background and Structure of the Sestina
Altaforte: A Sestina Ezra Pound
Love Letters, Diane Thiel
More Works in the Sestina
Of the Lady Petra degli Scrovigni Dante Alighieri, translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Ye goatherd gods... Sir Philip Sidney
Miracle for Breakfast Elizabeth Bishop
An Exercise in the Sestina
7. Villanelle
Background and Structure of the Villanelle
The House on the Hill Edward Arlington Robinson
More Works in the Villanelle
Villanelle for D. G. B. Marilyn Hacker
Theocritus Oscar Wilde
One Art Elizabeth Bishop
from Five Villanelles Weldon Kees
Daughters, 1900 Marilyn Nelson Waniek
Macbeth's Daughter William Logan
Macbeth's Daughter Drowned William Logan
An Exercise in the Villanelle
8. Other French Forms
Background and Structure of the Ballade and the Triolet
The Ballade of the Incompetent Ballade-Monger J. K. Stephen
When first we met we did not guess Robert Bridges
More Works in the Ballade
A Ballade of Dreamland Algernon Charles Swinburne
Envoi Algernon Charles Swinburne
Ballade of the Yale Younger Poets of Yesteryear R. S. Gwynn
A Ballad of Suicide G. K. Chesterton
The Ballad of Dead Ladies Francois Villon, translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Ballade of a Great Weariness Dorothy Parker
An Exercise in the French Forms
9. Japanese Forms
Background and Structure of the Japanese Forms
Etheridge Knight
More Works in Haiku
Hashin
Onitsura
Letter to Munnsville, NY from the Rue de Turenne
10. Other Asian Forms
Of Fire Agha Shahid Ali
More Works in the Rubaiyat and the Ghazal
Autumn Rachel Wetzsteon
Prayer Grace Shulman
selected lines from Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
An Exercise in the Ghazal
11. Short Comic Forms
Background and Structure of the Epigram
Two Cures for Love Wendy Cope
Their Sex Life A. R. Ammons
The Common Wisdom Howard Nemerov
Mores Works in the Epigram
Sir, I admit your gen'ral rule Alexander Pope
Here lies the body of Richard Hind Anonymous
On Sir John Guise Anonymous
Of Death Anonymous
To Fool or Knave Ben Jonson
Lip was a man who used his head Anonymous
Epitaph for Somone or Other J. V. Cunningham
Unfortunate Coincidence Anonymous
De Profundis Anonymous
Comment Dorothy Parker
Repentance Anonymous
Desire Anonymous
Fatherhood Dick Davis
On a Certain Alderman John Cunningham
On a Bad Singer Samuel Taylor Coleridge
What is an Epigram? Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Truth I pursued Samuel Taylor Coleridge
First Fig Edna St. Vincent Millay
A Critic Walter Savage Landor
Background and Structure of the Limerick
There was an Old Man of Messina... Edward Lear
More Works in the Limerick
On Himself Dante Gabriel Rosetti
On Arthur Hugh Clough Algernon Charles Swinburne
There was a Young Lady whose chin... Edward Lear
There was an Old Man of the Isles... Edward Lear
There was an old Person whose habits... Edward Lear
There was an Old Man of Calcutta... Edward Lear
Background and Structure of the Clerihew
Sir (then Mr.) Walter Beasant E. Clerihew Bentley
I was once slapped by a young lady named Miss Goringe Ogden Nash
An Exercise in the Short Comic Forms
12. Classical Imitations
Background and Structure of Classical Imitations
If mine eyes can speak to do hearty errand... Sir Philip Sidney
More Works of Classical Imitation
Sapphics Against Anger Timothy Steele
The Day of Judgment Isaac Watts
Hatred and Vengeance, My Eternal Portion William Cowper
An Exercise in Classical Imitation
13. Forms of Free Verse
VII. But to Honor Truth Which is Smooth Divine and Lives Among the Gods... Anne Carson
Grove of Academia, H. D.
More Works in Free Verse
The Young Housewife William Carlos Williams
The Waste Land Author
from Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd Author
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird Wallace Stevens
14. Prose Poetry
More Works in Prose Poetry
from Tender Buttons Gertrude Stein
from My Life Lyn Hejinian
A Story About the Body Robert Hass
15. New Forms and Old
From the Basque Charles Bernstein
Manifesto Edwin Morgan
AID/I/SAPPEARANCE Joan Retallack
The Beautician Thom Gunn
Notes
Suggestions for Further Reading
