Fixed verse forms are a kind of template or formula

Formula

In mathematics, a formula is an entity constructed using the symbols and formation rules of a given logical language....

 that poetry

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

 can be composed in. The converse of fixed-verse is Free verse

Free verse

Free verse is a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern.Poets have explained that free verse, despite its freedom, is not free. Free Verse displays some elements of form...

 poetry, which by design has little or no pre-established guidelines.

The various poetic forms, such as meter, rhyme scheme

Rhyme scheme

A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyme between lines of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme. In other words, it is the pattern of end rhymes or lines...

, and stanzas guide and limit a poet's choices when composing poetry. A fixed verse form combines one or more of these limitations into a larger form.

A form usually demands strict adherence to the established guidelines that to some poets may seem stifling, while other poets view the rigid structure as a challenge to be innovative and creative while staying within the guidelines.

Examples of Fixed Verse forms

• Haiku

  Haiku

  ' , plural haiku, is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities:* The essence of haiku is "cutting"...

  
   : A Japanese form designed to be small and concise by limiting the number of lines and the number of syllables in a line. Japanese haiku are three-line poems with the first and the third line having five syllables and the middle having seven syllables. English-language Haiku

  Haiku

  ' , plural haiku, is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities:* The essence of haiku is "cutting"...

  
   may be shorter than seventeen syllables, though some poets prefer to keep to the 5-7-5 format.

  Whitecaps on the bay:

  A broken signboard banging

  In the April wind.

  —Richard Wright

  Richard Wright (author)

  Richard Nathaniel Wright was an African-American author of sometimes controversial novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction. Much of his literature concerns racial themes, especially those involving the plight of African-Americans during the late 19th to mid 20th centuries...

  
   (collected in Haiku: This Other World, Arcade Publishing, 1998)

• Sonnet

  Sonnet

  A sonnet is one of several forms of poetry that originate in Europe, mainly Provence and Italy. A sonnet commonly has 14 lines. The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song" or "little sound"...

  
   : The sonnet is a European form and at its most basic requires that the total length be fourteen lines. There are two primary forms of the sonnet:

  • English Sonnet

    In addition to above requirements, the English Sonnet must be four stanzas, the first three being quatrains and the last a couplet

    Couplet

    A couplet is a pair of lines of meter in poetry. It usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the same meter.While traditionally couplets rhyme, not all do. A poem may use white space to mark out couplets if they do not rhyme. Couplets with a meter of iambic pentameter are called heroic...

    
    . Also the rhyme scheme for the quatrains is A-B-A-B and the final couplet is rhyming.

    Let me not to the marriage of true minds

    Admit impediments, love is not love

    Which alters when it alteration finds,

    Or bends with the remover to remove.

    O no, it is an ever fixed mark

    That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

    It is the star to every wand'ring bark,

    Whose worth's unknown although his height be taken.

    Love's not time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

    Within his bending sickle's compass come,

    Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

    But bears it out even to the edge of doom:

    If this be error and upon me proved,

    I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

    —William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare

    William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

    
    , Sonnet 16

    Italian Sonnet : The Italian sonnet requires that the fourteen lines be broken into one octave

    Octave (poetry)

    An octave is a verse form consisting of eight lines of iambic pentameter or of hendecasyllables . The most common rhyme scheme for an octave is abba abba....

    
     (two quatrain

    Quatrain

    A quatrain is a stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines of verse. Existing in various forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and China; and, continues into the 21st century, where it is...

    
    s), which describe a problem, followed by a sestet

    Sestet

    A sestet is the name given to the second division of an Italian sonnet , which must consist of an octave, of eight lines, succeeded by a sestet, of six lines. The first documented user of this poetical form was the Italian poet, Petrarch. In the usual course the rhymes are arranged abc abc, but...

    
     (two tercet

    Tercet

    A tercet is composed of three lines of poetry, forming a stanza or a complete poem. English-language haiku is an example of an unrhymed tercet poem...

    
    s), which gives the resolution to it.

    Methought I saw my late espoused Saint

    Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave,

    Whom Joves great Son to her glad Husband gave,

    Rescu'd from death by force though pale and faint.

    Mine as whom washt from spot of child-bed taint,

    Purification in the old Law did save,

    And such, as yet once more I trust to have

    Full sight of her in Heaven without restraint,

    Came vested all in white, pure as her mind:

    Her face was vail'd, yet to my fancied sight,

    Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shin'd

    So clear, as in no face with more delight.

    But O as to embrace me she enclin'd

    I wak'd, she fled, and day brought back my night.

    —John Milton

    John Milton

    John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...

    
    , Sonnet XXIII

• Sestina : The sestina has a highly structured form consisting of six sestet

  Sestet

  A sestet is the name given to the second division of an Italian sonnet , which must consist of an octave, of eight lines, succeeded by a sestet, of six lines. The first documented user of this poetical form was the Italian poet, Petrarch. In the usual course the rhymes are arranged abc abc, but...

  
   stanzas followed by a tercet

  Tercet

  A tercet is composed of three lines of poetry, forming a stanza or a complete poem. English-language haiku is an example of an unrhymed tercet poem...

  
   (called its envoy or tornada) for a total of thirty-nine lines. The same set of six words ends the lines of each of the six-line stanzas, but in a different order each time.

  I

  Damn it all! all this our South stinks peace.

  You whoreson dog, Papiols, come! Let's to music!

  I have no life save when swords clash.

  But ah! when I see the standards gold, vair, purple, opposing

  And the broad fields beneath them turn crimson,

  Then howel I my heart nigh mad rejoicing.

  II

  In hot summer have I great rejoicing

  When tempests kill the earth's foul peace,

  And the light'nings from black heav'n flash crimson,

  And the fierce thunders roar me their music

  And the winds shriek through the clouds mad, opposing,

  And through all the riven God's swords clash.

  III

  Hell grant soon we hear again the swords clash!

  And the shrill neighs of destriers in battle rejoicing,

  Spiked breast to spiked breast opposing!

  Better one hour's stour than a year's peace

  With fat boards, bawds, wine and frail music!

  Bah! there's no wine like the blood's crimson!

  IV

  And I love to see the sun rise blood-crimson.

  And I watch his spears through the dark clash

  and it fills my heart with rejoycing

  And pries wide my mouth with fast music

  When I see him so scorn and defy peace,

  His lone might 'gainst all darkmess opposing.

  V

  The man who fears war and squats opposing

  My words for stour, hath no blood of crimson

  But it is fit only to rotin womanish peace

  Far from where worth's won and the swords clash

  For the death of sluts I go rejoicing;

  Yea, I fill all the air with my music.

  VI

  Papiols, Papiols, to the music!

  There¹s no sound like to swords swords opposing,

  No cry like the battle's rejoicing

  When our elbows and swords drip the crimson

  And our charges 'gainst "The Leopard's" rush clash.

  May God damn for ever all who cry "Peace!"

  VII

  And let the music of the swords make them crimson!

  Hell grant soon we hear again the swords clash!

  Hell blot black for always the thought "Peace"!

  —Ezra Pound

  Ezra Pound

  Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...

  
  , Sestina: Altaforte

  Villanelle

  Villanelle

  A villanelle is a poetic form that entered English-language poetry in the 19th century from the imitation of French models. The word derives from the Italian villanella from Latin villanus . A villanelle has only two rhyme sounds...

  
   : A villanelle has only two rhyme

  Rhyme

  A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words and is most often used in poetry and songs. The word "rhyme" may also refer to a short poem, such as a rhyming couplet or other brief rhyming poem such as nursery rhymes.-Etymology:...

  
   sounds. The first and third lines of the first stanza

  Stanza

  In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "verse"...

  
   are rhyming refrain

  Refrain

  A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...

  
  s that alternate as the third line in each successive stanza and form a couplet

  Couplet

  A couplet is a pair of lines of meter in poetry. It usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the same meter.While traditionally couplets rhyme, not all do. A poem may use white space to mark out couplets if they do not rhyme. Couplets with a meter of iambic pentameter are called heroic...

  
   at the close. A villanelle is nineteen lines long, consisting of five tercet

  Tercet

  A tercet is composed of three lines of poetry, forming a stanza or a complete poem. English-language haiku is an example of an unrhymed tercet poem...

  
  s and one concluding quatrain

  Quatrain

  A quatrain is a stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines of verse. Existing in various forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and China; and, continues into the 21st century, where it is...

  
  .

  Do not go gentle into that good night,

  Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

  Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

• Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

  Because their words had forked no lightning they

  Do not go gentle into that good night.

• Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

  Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

  Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

• Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

  And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

  Do not go gentle into that good night.

• Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

  Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

  Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

• And you, my father, there on the sad height,

  Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

  Do not go gentle into that good night.

  Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

• —Dylan Thomas

  Dylan Thomas

  Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...

  
  , Do not Go Gentle into That Good Night