Patterns of Poetry: An Encyclopedia of Forms

Published in 1986, Patterns of Poetry is an encyclopedia of the forms used by poets throughout history and begins with an introduction from author, editor, and translator Miller Williams linking history with the continued evolution of literature. “It is the nature of the arts—including literature—that they shape themselves to social changes, whether these are major upheavals altering the lives of a population in midcourse or slower shifts in the social climate, hardly perceptible to those who live through them,” he writes. “How a form relates to the life of the age in which it emerges, or reemerges, is among the central questions a student of the arts must explore.” From blank verse to hymnal measure, from haiku to the sonnet, each form is introduced with a explanation of its origin and schematics, followed by exemplary poems from various poets. The book also includes a glossary, bibliography, additional sample poems, as well as an essay on the line as the prosodic unit.