Formulas for Poetry

the next time you hear people describe something as poetic, ask them if they don't really mean formulaic

the lists below are from Wikipedia


A
▪ Action (literature)
▪ Anacreontics
▪ Antilabe
▪ Antistrophe
▪ Arlabecca
B
▪ Ballad
▪ Balliol rhyme
▪ Balwo
▪ Blank verse
▪ Blason
▪ Bosinada
▪ Bouts-Rimés
▪ Bref double
C
▪ Canto
▪ Carmen (verse)
▪ Chant royal
▪ Cinquain
▪ Clerihew
▪ Cobla (Occitan literary term)
▪ Copla (meter)
▪ Couplet
▪ Cumulative song
▪ Cumulative tale
D
▪ Décima
▪ Dinggedicht
▪ Dodoitsu
E
▪ Elegiac
▪ Elegiac couplet
▪ Elegy
▪ Envoi
▪ Epode
F
▪ Fixed verse
▪ Free verse
G
▪ Ghazal
▪ Gogyōshi
H
▪ Hainteny
▪ Heroic couplet
▪ Heroic verse
▪ Hudibrastic
▪ Humdrum and Harum-Scarum
K
▪ Kantan Chamorrita
L
▪ Lục bát
M
▪ Monostich
N
▪ Nonnet
O
▪ Octonary
▪ Ode
▪ Olonkho
▪ Oríkì
P
▪ Palinode
▪ Pantoum
▪ Pantun
▪ Paradelle
▪ Pathya Vat
▪ Pentina
▪ Poetic closure
▪ Poetic Meter and Poetic Form
Q
▪ Quaternion (poetry)
▪ Quatorzain
▪ Quintain (poetry)
▪ Quinzaine
R
▪ Ragale
▪ Recueillement
▪ Rhyme royal
▪ Roundel (poetry)
S
▪ Saturnian (poetry)
▪ Sestet
▪ Sevenling
▪ Sijo
▪ Silva (Spanish strophe)
▪ Sisindiran
▪ Skolion
▪ Slavic antithesis
▪ Song thất lục bát
▪ Stanza
▪ Stichic
▪ Stichomythia
▪ Strophe
▪ Syair
▪ Synchysis
T
▪ Tanaga
▪ Tanka (poetry)
▪ Tanka in English
▪ Tanka prose
▪ Terzanelle
▪ Thai poetry
▪ Thanbauk (poetic form)
▪ Tristich
▪ Tweede Asem
U
▪ Uta monogatari
V
▪ Villanelle
▪ Virelai nouveau
Y
▪ Yadu (poetry)

And if this isn't enough there are even more, and more, and more, and more...

Pussy Riot

i try soups

Suitor spy strips you, purist soy! 

Spits your sirup toys.

Pits yours, Tipsy Sour.

I roust spy; Spry I oust!

Yo, strip us!

Yo, strip us!

Yo, strip us!

Out, sir spy.

Formulaic vs. Poetic

The difference between the poetic and the formulaic is that you haven't figured out the formula for the poetic yet.

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