Styles

Haiku
An unrhyming style with line syllable rules.  Traditionally written in three lines with five syllables, seven syllables, and five syllables.  Written in a one-line format for the 365 project.

Waka
An unrhyming style with line syllable rules written in two forms:  Tanka and Choka.  Tanka wakas have five lines with the following number of syllables per line: 5, 7, 5, 7, and 7.  Choka wakas are written with at least two pairs of 5, 7 syllable lines and end with a 5, 7, 7 syllable set of lines (i.e. 5, 7, 5, 7, 5, 7, 5, 7, 7).

Quatrain
A rhyming style written in sets of four line verses.

Villanelle
A rhyming style with only two rhymes over six verses and a repeating refrain.  Rhyming pattern is:  RBP  ABR  ABP  ABR  ABP  ABRP (with R and P being A rhymes).

Acrostic
An unrhyming style with messages hidden (traditionally) in the first letter, syllable, or word of each line.

Limerick
A rhyming style with 5 lines.  The traditional rhyming pattern is:  A, A, B, B, A.

Free style
An unrhyming, prose-like style

Cinquain
An unrhyming style written with line syllable rules.  Original line rules are:  2, 4, 6, 8, 2.  Variations exist that reverse those lines and combine two or more regular and/or reverse cinquains.

Roundel
A rhyming style with only two rhymes over 3 verses and a repeating refrain.  Rhyming pattern is:  ABAR  BAB  ABAR (with R being a B rhyme).

English sonnet
A rhyming style with 14 lines and 7 rhymes.  The traditional rhyming pattern is:  ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

Italian sonnet
A rhyming style with 14 lines and 7 rhymes.  The traditional rhyming pattern is:  ABBAABBA CDECDE.  The first 8 lines, the octave, tends to introduce the problem or issue of the poem.  The following 6 lines, the sextet, brings a resolution to the octave.  I tend to write with a variant of that patterned:  ABBACDDC EFGEFG.

Sonnet
A variation of sonnets written in a looser rhyming pattern with 14 lines.

Diamante
A visual style with 7 lines of defined themes.  Those themes are:
A noun or subject,
Two adjectives,
Three -ing words,
Four words about the subject,
Three -ing words,
Two adjectives,
And a synonym/antonym for the subject.

Chimera
As part of the 365 project, I created a new style named Chimera with an emphasis on lines and stanzas grouped in fours, no required rhyming pattern, and an average of eight syllables per line (though variation is allowed).