Why Write in a Fixed Shape? Rules That Do the Work for You

A verse form is a set of rules a poem satisfies, and different forms specify different things. Line length may be fixed by syllable count, by stress count or by a metrical pattern. Stanza length and the number of stanzas may be set. A rhyme scheme may be prescribed, with particular lines required to rhyme in a stated arrangement. Repetition may be required, with whole lines returning at specified points. A turn or shift of argument may be expected at a particular place. And the form may carry conventional associations with particular subjects, which a poet either uses or works against deliberately. What a form does not specify is anything about content, which is where all the interest lies.

A handful of forms cover most of what is written in English:

• •The sonnet, fourteen lines with a prescribed rhyme scheme and a turn, in several national variants
• •The villanelle, nineteen lines built on two refrains that alternate and finally pair
• •The sestina, six stanzas cycling the same six end words in a rotating order
• •The ballad stanza, four lines alternating four and three stresses, rhyming on the short lines
• •Blank verse, unrhymed iambic pentameter, which specifies metre and nothing else
• •The haiku and its relatives, which specify length and in the original tradition much more

Working within rules is more productive than it sounds and the reasons are practical. A requirement forces the writer past the first thing that came to mind, since the obvious phrase frequently does not fit and finding one that does means searching further, which regularly turns up something better. Rhyme in particular pushes a poem towards connections the writer did not plan, since the search for a word with the right sound surfaces ideas the search for a word with the right meaning would not. A fixed length forces compression and forces a decision about what to leave out. A required turn imposes a structure of argument. And having some decisions made in advance removes the paralysis of unlimited choice, which is why writers frequently report forms as liberating rather than restrictive.

Forms do not transfer between languages cleanly, and the reasons illuminate what a form depends on. Rhyme is easy in languages with many words sharing endings, including Italian and Spanish, and considerably harder in English, which is why English sonnets use fewer rhyme sounds than Italian ones and why the Italian scheme is difficult to sustain in English. Syllable-counting forms suit languages where syllables are of roughly equal length and fit awkwardly onto English, where stress dominates, which is why the syllable count taught for haiku misrepresents the original form and why practitioners writing in English increasingly ignore it. Quantitative metres depend on a distinction English does not make. And forms depending on grammatical features, including obligatory rhyme on inflectional endings, cannot exist in a language lacking them.

Departure from a form is only meaningful against an expectation, which is why the forms matter even to writers who abandon them. A sonnet of fifteen lines, or one that withholds the expected rhyme at the end, produces an effect precisely because the reader was counting, and that effect is unavailable to a poem with no pattern to violate. Free verse is not the absence of form but the substitution of a pattern the poem invents for one supplied in advance, which places the whole burden of structure on the writer and is harder rather than easier. Twentieth century practice moved decisively towards that, and the revival of fixed forms by later poets was in part a response to the difficulty of doing without them.

A form specifies line length, stanza shape, rhyme, repetition and sometimes a turn, and specifies nothing about content. Constraint helps because it forces the writer past the first available phrase and because rhyme surfaces connections that searching for meaning alone would not. Breaking a form only produces an effect where the reader was expecting it, which is why free verse is harder rather than easier.