Poetry

===Form in poetry===
Poetic form is more flexible in modernist and post-modernist poetry and continues to be less structured than in previous literary eras. Many modern poets eschew recognizable structures or forms and write in [[free verse]]. Free verse is, however, not "formless" but composed of a series of more subtle, more flexible prosodic elements.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://literarydevices.com/free-verse/ |title=FREE VERSE |date=25 May 2015 |access-date=22 May 2021}}</ref> Thus poetry remains, in all its styles, distinguished from prose by form;<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/f/forms-of-verse-free-verse/ |title=Forms of verse: Free verse [Victoria and Albert Museum] |date=4 July 2011 |access-date=22 May 2021}}</ref> some regard for basic formal structures of poetry will be found in all varieties of free verse, however much such structures may appear to have been ignored.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Whitworth |first=Michael H. |title=Reading modernist poetry |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-4051-6731-4 |page=74}}</ref> Similarly, in the best poetry written in classic styles there will be departures from strict form for emphasis or effect.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hollander|1981|pp=50–51}}</ref>

Among major structural elements used in poetry are the line, the [[stanza]] or [[verse paragraph]], and larger combinations of stanzas or lines such as [[canto]]s. Also sometimes used are broader visual presentations of words and [[calligraphy]]. These basic units of poetic form are often combined into larger structures, called ''poetic forms'' or poetic modes (see the following section), as in the [[sonnet]].

====Lines and stanzas====
{{main|Line (poetry)|Stanza}}
Poetry is often separated into lines on a page, in a process known as [[line break (poetry)|lineation]]. These lines may be based on the number of metrical feet or may emphasize a rhyming pattern at the ends of lines. Lines may serve other functions, particularly where the poem is not written in a formal metrical pattern. Lines can separate, compare or contrast thoughts expressed in different units, or can highlight a change in tone.<ref>{{Harvnb|Corn|1997|pp=7–13}}</ref> See the article on [[line break (poetry)|line breaks]] for information about the division between lines.

Lines of poems are often organized into [[stanza]]s, which are denominated by the number of lines included. Thus a collection of two lines is a [[couplet]] (or [[distich]]), three lines a [[tercet|triplet]] (or [[tercet]]), four lines a [[quatrain]], and so on. These lines may or may not relate to each other by rhyme or rhythm. For example, a couplet may be two lines with identical meters which rhyme or two lines held together by a common meter alone.<ref>{{Harvnb|Corn|1997|pp=78–82}}</ref>

[[File:Alexander Blok - Noch, ulica, fonar, apteka.jpg|thumb|[[Alexander Blok|Blok]]'s [[Russian language|Russian]] poem, "''Noch, ulitsa, fonar, apteka''" ("Night, street, lamp, drugstore"), on a wall in [[Leiden]]]]
Other poems may be organized into [[verse paragraph]]s, in which regular rhymes with established rhythms are not used, but the poetic tone is instead established by a collection of rhythms, alliterations, and rhymes established in paragraph form.<ref>{{Harvnb|Corn|1997|p=78}}</ref> Many medieval poems were written in verse paragraphs, even where regular rhymes and rhythms were used.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Middle English Literature: a guide to criticism |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-631-23290-2 |editor-last=Dalrymple |editor-first=Roger |page=10}}</ref>

In many forms of poetry, stanzas are interlocking, so that the rhyming scheme or other structural elements of one stanza determine those of succeeding stanzas. Examples of such interlocking stanzas include, for example, the [[ghazal]] and the [[villanelle]], where a refrain (or, in the case of the villanelle, refrains) is established in the first stanza which then repeats in subsequent stanzas. Related to the use of interlocking stanzas is their use to separate thematic parts of a poem. For example, the [[strophe]], [[antistrophe]] and [[epode]] of the ode form are often separated into one or more stanzas.<ref>{{Harvnb|Corn|1997|pp=78–79}}</ref>

In some cases, particularly lengthier formal poetry such as some forms of epic poetry, stanzas themselves are constructed according to strict rules and then combined. In [[skald]]ic poetry, the [[dróttkvætt]] stanza had eight lines, each having three "lifts" produced with alliteration or assonance. In addition to two or three alliterations, the odd-numbered lines had partial rhyme of consonants with dissimilar vowels, not necessarily at the beginning of the word; the even lines contained internal rhyme in set syllables (not necessarily at the end of the word). Each half-line had exactly six syllables, and each line ended in a trochee. The arrangement of dróttkvætts followed far less rigid rules than the construction of the individual dróttkvætts.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture |publisher=Blackwell |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-4051-3738-6 |editor-last=McTurk |editor-first=Rory |editor-link=Rory McTurk |pages=269–280}}</ref>

====Visual presentation====
{{Main|Visual poetry}}
Even before the advent of printing, the visual appearance of poetry often added meaning or depth. [[Acrostic]] poems conveyed meanings in the initial letters of lines or in letters at other specific places in a poem.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Freedman |first=David Noel |date=July 1972 |title=Acrostics and Metrics in Hebrew Poetry |journal=Harvard Theological Review |volume=65 |issue=3 |pages=367–392 |doi=10.1017/s0017816000001620|s2cid=162853305 }}</ref> In [[Arabic poetry|Arabic]], [[Jewish literature#Poetry|Hebrew]] and [[Chinese poetry]], the visual presentation of finely [[calligraphy|calligraphed]] poems has played an important part in the overall effect of many poems.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kampf |first=Robert |title=Reading the Visual – 17th century poetry and visual culture |publisher=GRIN Verlag |year=2010 |isbn=978-3-640-60011-3 |pages=4–6}}</ref>

With the advent of [[printing]], poets gained greater control over the mass-produced visual presentations of their work. Visual elements have become an important part of the poet's toolbox, and many poets have sought to use visual presentation for a wide range of purposes. Some [[Modernism|Modernist]] poets have made the placement of individual lines or groups of lines on the page an integral part of the poem's composition. At times, this complements the poem's [[rhythm]] through visual [[caesura]]s of various lengths, or creates [[Contrast (linguistics)|juxtapositions]] so as to accentuate meaning, [[ambiguity]] or [[irony]], or simply to create an aesthetically pleasing form. In its most extreme form, this can lead to [[concrete poetry]] or [[asemic writing]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bohn |first=Willard |url=https://archive.org/details/aestheticsofvisu0000bohn/page/1 |title=The aesthetics of visual poetry |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-226-06325-6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/aestheticsofvisu0000bohn/page/1 1–8]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2009/07/web-semantics-asemic-writing/ |title=Web Semantics: Asemic writing |last=Sterling |first=Bruce |date=13 July 2009 |magazine=Wired |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091027152452/http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2009/07/web-semantics-asemic-writing/ |archive-date=2009-10-27 |access-date=10 December 2011}}</ref>