Teaching Students to Write Various Poetry Styles

American poet Muriel Rukeyser told us to "breathe-in experience, breathe-out poetry." Even young children have enough real-world encounters to produce effective poems. Once they're given the tools, students-including those who shy away from other forms of writing-typically enjoy creating poems.

Students in my upper elementary and middle-school classes composed poetry portfolios during April, "National Poetry Month." (Click here for "National Poetry Month" activity suggestions.) This was one writing assignment where most students exceeded expectations and minimum requirements. Once they learned various poetry forms, their imaginations soared.

I provided directions for the poetry booklet at the beginning of the month; it was due at the end of the month, and we worked with different styles throughout April. Even though students were only required to write one poem for each type listed below, most did quite a few more. For the final copies, they could type or hand-write the poems and needed to include illustrations, a dedication, a title page and a table of contents.

Haiku
This is a Japanese poem, generally about nature. It is 3 lines long. The first line is 5 syllables, the second line is 7 and the last line is 5.

Sun moves on rubble,
weeds grow sideways in small cracks,
small vines cling to walls.

Limerick
This is funny verse in 5 lines. Lines 1, 2 and 5 rhyme and have three stressed syllables; lines 3 and 4 rhyme and have two stressed syllables.

There once was a chef named Maurice
Who always used way too much grease.
His chicken was fine;
His fries were divine,
But his dinners just made me obese.

Ballad
This type of poetry tells a story and is written in 4-line stanzas. It should have a song-like sound when read aloud.

Ernest Lawrence Thayer's "Casey at the Bat"
The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day;
The score stood four to two with but one inning more to play.
And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game....

Cinquain
1^st line: one word title
2^nd line: two words describe title
3^rd line: three words tell the action
4^th line: four words express a feeling
5^th line: one word recalls the title

Drink
Cool, smooth
Refreshing, quenching, pleasing
Memories of my childhood
Lemonade

5 W's
Who? What? Where? When? Why?

I
Love to bike
Along deserted trails
In the middle of the day
Because it gives me time to think

Concrete
Students have fun with this style. The poem takes the shape of the topic. For example, when writing about a kite, the words form a picture of a kite.

Acrostic
This is also called a "name poem." Use the letters of a word to begin each line in a poem.

Sensible
Acts crazy sometimes
My best friend

Sensory
Each line describes the subject using one of the senses.

I was standing on the street when
The rusty old black Cadillac (sight)
Grunted rack-a-bump-she-bang (sound)
And heated up my cool spot of air (feeling)
And spewed oily smoke (smell)
All over my mustard-covered, foot-long hot dog (sight)
~Anne Marie Oomen~

Diamante
When written, the words in this poem should be centered into the shape of a diamond. We did ours about opposite words.

Day
Clear, light
Playing, singing, enjoying
Rises in the East, sets in the West
Relaxing, unwinding, sleeping
Dark, quiet
Night

Ode
This poem indicates admiration for someone or something. Although odes are often serious, we made ours silly and spoke directly to the object. Students wrote odes to their math books, tennis shoes, a piece of cheese, and so on.

Sneakers, you take me everywhere.
Even in the rain, you never seem to care, etc.

Source for sample haiku, limerick and sensory poems:
"Writers' Express"; Write Source Educational Publishing House; 1994

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Additional types of poetry styles can be found here.