Need help on how to write poems: ballads, cinquains, or sonnets.?

Question

Just need some guidlines on writing those three types of poems, thanks for the help in advance!

Answer 1

Ballads traditionally have four-line stanzas, with lines 1 and 3 having 4 beats and lines 2 and 4 having 3 beats. The rhyme scheme is abab or abcb. This means that line "a" rhymes with the later line "a," etc. An example stanza from Emily Dickinson (if you sing it aloud, you can feel the rhythm):

I died for Beauty-- but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb
When One who died for Truth, was lain
In an adjoining Room--

Sonnets have fourteen lines, and usually have five beats-- meaning, five stressed syllables per line. There are two forms, Petrarchan and Shakespearean.
The Petrarchan looks like this: ababcdcd/cdecde
The Shakespearean looks like this: ababcdcdefefgg
By Shakespeare's day, the final two lines of the sonnet (gg) were supposed to be the most powerful-- like, all the other lines lead up to that final statement. Read some of Shakespeare's sonnets to get a feel for the rhythm.

I'm not sure of the exact form of a cinquain, except that it has a five-line stanza.

I hope you have fun writing your poetry.

Answer 2

Here's how to write a Petrarchan sonnet:
http://www.helium.com/tm/144223

Answer 3

Try the link below. I found it very helpful, and saved me a lot of sifting through crappy web-sites.