Playing Around with Poetry

Types of Poetry

RHYME is often used at the end of the lines in a poem, although many types of poems don't rhyme at all. Rhyme helps to produce music in a poem which is why most songs rhyme. There are many rhymes in nursery rhymes. Young children enjoy reading and writing rhymes. 

BALLAD a simple poem with short verses. It often tells a story about people that you would read about in folk tales. Ballads were told to people long before they were written down. They were about revenge, crime and  love. They were often turned into songs, the singers usually wandering minstrels. Ballad  "The Death of Ben Hall" 

NARRATIVE POEMS tell a story, a particular event or happening and often relate a very long story.  Narrative poems:
"The Pied Piper of Hamelin” by Robert Browning,
"The Owl and the Pussy Cat" by Edward Lear,  
"The Man From Snowy River" by Banjo Patterson.

NONSENSE POEMS are funny because they are full of strange things that don't usually happen and strange words that have never been seen before the writer invented them. 
Edward Lear " The Complete Nonsense Book"
Lewis Carroll nonsense verse in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass"

FREE VERSE poetry that doesn't follow any set pattern. It doesn't rhyme and there is no definite beat or rhythm to the sound of the words. 

LIMERICKS are funny rhyming poems of five lines. an example from Edward Lear 
There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said: "It is just as I feared! -
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!"

© Ministry of Education, Wellington, New Zealand (First published 1998)