Thomas Hardy is a good example of poet who created a very large number of nonce forms. One special type of nonce form is a shaped poem , which mimics its subject in its design. There are relatively few fixed forms , or stanzas that have been used time and again by poets of different eras and that have served as the structural basis for a number of poems generally regarded as masterpieces. What follows is an explanation of the basic fixed forms of English poetry, each illustrated with one celebrated example. The list moves from shorter forms to longer.
Triplets are three-line stanzas of any metrical length in which all the lines rhyme.
If two or no lines of a three-line stanza rhyme, what you have is called a tercet . The palm stands on the edge of space. The wind moves slowly in the branches. The bird's fire-fangled feathers dangle down. Pored on the trodden worms that crawled beneath, And others mournfully within the gloom Of their own shadow walked, and called it death . . .