The Form and Structure of Poems

The form of a poem dictates how it appears on the page and how the poet deals with his or her material.As with all writing tasks, the poet needs to begin by asking "What kind of poem am I writing? What is my audience? What is my purpose?"Some of the purpose answers might be: to tell a story to describe a scene to express an emotion to make a comment on life to …

…pensioners. Different forms have different strengths and weaknesses. For example: Haikus are good for describing and expressing emotions but not much use for telling stories. Limericks are good ways of telling jokes but not ideally suited for expressing deep emotions. Ballads are good for telling stories but aren't used often to express arguments. Sonnets are a very good way of reflecting on a scene or an idea but are not well suited to story telling.