Guest Author - Meg Grooms

April is National Poetry Month in the United States. How do you feel about poetry? Poetry can be a great form of expression, an emotional release or a productive hobby.

There is no one type of poem, and poems don't have to rhyme. Poetry is a fun addition to writing and reading programs. Challenge your child to learn about poems and creat their own this month!

Poems come in many shapes and forms, following is a short glossary of poetry terms and descriptions of different types of poetry.

ballad - a story-telling poem with two to four lines per stanza and a refrain

Cinquain - non-rhyming poem consisting of 22 syllables in five lines, in the order 2, 4, 6, 8, 2

epic - a long poem telling the story of a hero

fable - a short story with a moral lesson

free verse - a poem in which the author focuses more on line breaks than the rules of poetry

Haiku - a Japanese for of poetry, usually about nature, that consists of 3 unrhymed lines. Syllables of lines are 5, 7, 5.

ode - a poetic tribute to a loved or admired one

quatrain - a poem with four lines consisting of a specific rhyme scheme (ex: aabb or abab)

refrain - a part of a poem or song that is repeated

song - a poem of any variety sung with the human voice or played on a musical instrument. Songs contain refrains and stanzas (verses).

stanza - an individual passage in a poem or song, a paragraph

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