Question

Which of the following is the best definition of the term "form" as it is used in poetry?
A. The author's style and the words he chooses to use
B. The descriptive words used by the author to create images for the reader
C. The language the author uses to compare ideas and concepts to ordinary objects
D. The structure of the poem and how it looks on the page

Answer 1

It's either A or D, Let me try to narrow it down a little more though.

Answer 2

Form, in poetry, can be understood as the physical structure of the poem: the length of the lines, their rhythms, their system of rhymes and repetition. In this sense, it is normally reserved for the type of poem where these features have been shaped into a pattern, especially a familiar pattern.

Another sense of "form" is to refer to these familiar patterns - these can be simple and open-ended forms, such as blank verse, or can be a complex system of rhymes, rhythms and repeated lines within a fixed number of lines, as a sonnet or villanelle is. (This is similar to the word "shape"; asked to think about "a shape", you would expect a triangle or a circle, but Alaska too has a shape.) The difference is visible in Sebastian Barker's poem 'Holy The Heart On Which We Hang Our Hope': the form of this poem shares aspects with another form, the villanelle, but also differs from it in interesting ways, just as its content shares in some aspects of organised faith but not in others.

Answer 3

Ok, So the Answer is D. And this is my research. It's the physical structure of the poem.

Answer 4

best reply of the night

Answer 5

Thanks Gabe. Anytime.