Harman Patil (Editor)

Fixed verse

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Fixed verse forms are a kind of template or formula that poetry can be composed in. The opposite of Fixed verse is Free verse poetry, which by design has little or no pre-established guidelines.

The various poetic forms, such as meter, rhyme scheme, 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

  • Sonnet 
    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:
  • Italian Sonnet 
    The Italian sonnet requires that the fourteen lines be broken into one octave (two quatrains), which describe a problem, followed by a sestet (two tercets), which gives the resolution to it.
    • Sestina 
    The sestina has a highly structured form consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, followed by a tercet (called its envoi 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.

    References

    Fixed verse Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA