PATTERN

1. continuous form

2. stanzaic form

3. fixed form

A. limerick = 5 line poem

(3 lines of anapestic trimeter

with 2 lines of anapestic dimeter)

a
a
b
b
a

There once was a lady named Lynn

Who was so excessively thin

That when she assayed

To drink lemonade

She slipped through the straw and fell in!

B. sonnet (14 lines in iambic pentameter)

1) Italian = octave + sestet

a
b
b
a

a
b
b
a

c
d
e

c
d
e

2) English (Shakespearean) = 3 quatrains + 1 couplet

a
b
a
b

c
d
c
d

e
f
e
f

g
g

C. villanelle (19 lines in iambic pentameter of 5 tercets + 1 quatrain)

a
b
a

line 1 = also lines 6, 12, 18

line 2 = also lines 9, 15, 19

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