Understanding the Structure and Elements of Poetic Form

Poetry comes in many different styles, shapes, and techniques. Some poetry can be short and structured, such as a haiku, while others can attach new meaning to existing published works, such as a Golden Shovel or docupoetry. 

What separates a poem from another medium, such as a short story?

To understand that you need to understand poetic form.

What Is Poetic Form?

Quite simply, poetic form refers to the structure of a poem. In poetry, there is a similar approach to the elements of fiction, though what you are looking for is slightly different.

For example, in poetry, the following can make up its poetic form:

• Stanza – the series of lines that are either grouped or separated. For example, two lines would be known as a couplet while three lines are called a tercet.

• Meter – the rhyming scheme of the poem. It doesn’t necessarily have to rhyme, but many poems contain a musical or lyrical element.

• Poetic devices – elements like alliteration, imagery, oxymoron, etc., can all determine poetic form. Even literary devices used in fiction can impact a poetry’s overall structure.

• Content – What is the poem trying to say? Some content will directly impact what type the poem is. For instance, confessional poetry is different from other poetry types because of the personal content related to the speaker.

In my opinion, nothing shows how liberating and free poetry can be than when we talk about form. While there are many different fiction forms and structures, poetry can utilize visual cues and movement in a unique way to draw specific feelings out of the reader.

For example, in J. Bradley’s “Four Yelp Reviews,” the poetic form is structured through “yelp reviews” of significant locations in the speaker’s life, whether directly or indirectly.

Look at the lines below:

Yelp Review: Stonewall Jackson Middle School

Dignity is strung up the flagpole, flapping against the wind of rumor. Your name is no longer your name. It is a slight plank of wood hammered above every threshold you cross, a warning, a threat. Resist consulting the Steve Urkel playbook of love; “no” becomes easier to swallow as the esophagus calluses against edge, vinegar, and salt.

- Four Yelp Reviews, J. Bradley

This form allows each review title to give a sense of place and heighten the imagery. It also helps to keep the concepts contained within their respective spaces.

While each segment is about identity, each one also has something specific about that aspect of identity. The above speaks of the themes of identity, inability to protect oneself, and the isolating and self-loathing feeling one has when being bullied.

Of course, these are not really Yelp reviews, and the speaker does not believe you would think they are. Still, by framing the segments that way, you get a sense of what the poet is trying to say – that one looks at life like a review, either a negative or unpleasant experience that they choose to dictate where they will go onward. 

Other forms can follow traditional structures but still allow room for creativity and innovation. Take the styles of the ghazal form or the sestina form of poetry, for instance.

Focusing on the latter, the poem by Raych Jackson, “A Sestina for a Black Girl Who Does Not Know How to Braid Hair,” also tackles the themes of identity and expectation but does so in a notably formulaic way, making substantial use of the pronoun “you” to call attention to the content better and make the reader consider the emphasis that is unfairly placed on outward appearance.

Let’s examine a few lines below:

Your presence will someday become useful.

One day the rest of your body will stagger under the weight of its value.

Until then, sit in silence in the front with your scalp on fire from the braids.

I promise you won’t need anyone too long.

One day you will love yourself on your own, without the validation of sisters.

No longer a stump wailing for affection at harvest.

A Sestina for a Black Girl Who Does Not Know How to Braid Hair, Raych Jackson

Notice how each line has its intended point, whether to give advice to the reader/the self or to give a reflection.

The poem's purpose, the theme of identity that leads to self-reliance, is made abundantly clear.

Line Breaks

If we think of a poem as a living, malleable organism, then we can better understand the use of lines. That is because lines are the poem’s content, and line breaks are logical or a-logical pauses.

They essentially give you an idea of the thoughts, perceptions, feelings, scenes, and so forth in the poem.

Many poems use line breaks, and some will do so in highly exaggerated or dramatic ways.

Personally, I like to think of a line break as a type of dance between the poet and reader; the poet leads and directs the audience on what step to take next.

For example, in Sylvia Plath’s “Edge,” although the poem is purposely ambiguous in its messaging, the reader gets a sense of a resolution towards death.

Let’s take a look at some of the lines from this poem:

The woman is perfected.   

Her dead

Body wears the smile of accomplishment,   

The illusion of a Greek necessity

Flows in the scrolls of her toga,   

Her bare

- Edge, Sylvia Plath

Plath writes that the “woman is perfected,” giving an idea that this woman’s form, and women in general, is in its most perfect state. We, the audience, believe that this state is the traditional standard of beauty but then subverts the expectation by adding “her dead.”

In this way, the poem speaks to the finality of death.

It is jarring for the reader because, with the first line, the reader has time to picture their thought of an ideal “perfect” woman, but as mentioned, Plath then subverts this.

I believe she does this intentionally because she wants the reader to understand that beneath the surface of an accomplished woman (in her case, a poet) is a dark well of depression. In a more generalized sense, all women are more than they appear to be.

Women can be messy, overwhelmed, or depressed, and in some cases, women may also have the propensity for violence.

Either towards themselves or others.

The line breaks allow her to jar and misdirect the reader constantly and get them to think of the intensity of this woman’s state of mind.

The use of line breaks allows the poet to masterfully gives the reader time to process information and then change direction entirely.

While line breaks are not always this intense in poetry, they give you a sense of how to best use poetic form and function.

 Simile and Metaphor

 Simile and metaphor are some of the most recognizable cornerstones of figurative language, discussed previously.

Through this type of language, we can freely think, feel, and process the world around us. As the text mentions, we can make comparisons and conclude our words.

Many poems use simile and metaphor effectively.

For instance, Navarre Scott’s “Simile” uses the visual imagery of a deer to tell us everything we need to know about a couple before a fight breaks out.

Anyone can get a sense of the almost palpable tension that hangs in the air when you say that one exact thing that will set the other person off.

Like the deer, the couple stands in this fog of apprehension, waiting to see what the other will say. Scott does well to give a sense of heightened escalation because the reader knows what comes next will likely be an explosion of anger and hurt feelings.

The above paints a personal, micro-lens of the human nature through a couple, but figurative language can also be a macro look at a widescale human problem.

While many more elements can work well in poetry, the above will give you a good idea of what separates poetic form from that of fiction.

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