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QuillOak

Poetic form

What is a Short Poems?

Definition

A short poem says one complete thing in a handful of lines — compression doing the work that length usually does.

The shorter the poem, the more each word weighs. A short poem — anything from a single couplet to a dozen lines — has no room for warming up or winding down; it must arrive already meaning something. The family includes the couplet, the haiku, the epigram, and Adelaide Crapsey's cinquain: small machines built from different blueprints, all running on compression.

Short poems are also the ones that live in the world: copied into cards, texted at midnight, memorized before the kettle boils. They're easy to read and brutally hard to write — as Pascal apologized in a letter, he'd have made it shorter if he'd had more time. Brevity isn't a discount; it's the most expensive thing a poem can buy.

Structure of a short poems

  • Usually under a dozen lines; many under five
  • One image or one turn of thought — never two
  • The ending carries extra weight: the last line is half the poem
  • Close cousins: the couplet, haiku, epigram, and cinquain

How to write a short poems

  1. Write long first: draft ten lines about your subject, then keep the best two or three.
  2. Cut every word whose only job is introducing another word.
  3. Make the title work — in a short poem it's free real estate.
  4. End on the concrete noun or the twist, never on an explanation.

330 short poems examples

Classic and original short poems poems, free to read in full.

Music, When Soft Voices Die

Percy Bysshe Shelley · 1821

Music, when soft voices die,Vibrates in the memory—Odours, when sweet violets sicken,

8 lines · lyric

First Warm Rain

The QuillOak Editors

first warm rain of spring —the umbrellas stay foldedeveryone looks up

3 lines · haiku

Crocus in the Frost

The QuillOak Editors

crocus in the frosttoo early, and unbothered —teach me that, small one

3 lines · haiku

August Afternoon

The QuillOak Editors

august afternoon —the garden hose, the shriekingjoy of being eight

3 lines · haiku

Cicadas at Dusk

The QuillOak Editors

cicadas at duskturning the whole heat to song —even the heat sings

3 lines · haiku

One Red Maple Leaf

The QuillOak Editors

one red maple leafrides the river out of town —travel light, it says

3 lines · haiku

Snow on the Mailbox

The QuillOak Editors

snow on the mailbox —all the news the morning bringsis white, and silent

3 lines · haiku

After the Train

The QuillOak Editors

the train pulls awayand you wave until it bendsout of sight, then stand

5 lines · tanka

The Cedar Box

The QuillOak Editors

folding your lettersinto the cedar box, Ikeep what keeps, and still

5 lines · tanka

The Meeting

The QuillOak Editors

the meeting could havebeen an email — forty smilesthinking the same thing

3 lines · senryu

One Percent

The QuillOak Editors

phone at one percent —suddenly I rememberthe names of the clouds

3 lines · senryu

Puppy (a Cinquain)

The QuillOak Editors

Puppywiggly, hopefulchewing, chasing, flopping

5 lines · cinquain

Letting Go (a Crapsey Cinquain)

The QuillOak Editors

Dusk fallsthe maples lettheir last gold go without

5 lines · cinquain

M-O-M (an Acrostic)

The QuillOak Editors

More than the cards could ever quite say,Over the years, in your quiet way,Mom — you're the heart of us, every day.

3 lines · acrostic

L-O-V-E (an Acrostic)

The QuillOak Editors

Listening, even to the boring parts,Overlooking the socks on the floor,Voting for you, every day, in everything,

4 lines · acrostic

H-O-P-E (an Acrostic)

The QuillOak Editors

Hold on — not to how it was,Only to what it still could be;Plant something small in the wreckage,

4 lines · acrostic

F-R-I-E-N-D (an Acrostic)

The QuillOak Editors

First to arrive when everything falls,Refusing to say "I told you so,"Insisting your worst jokes are funny,

6 lines · acrostic

A Poet Named Pratt

The QuillOak Editors

There once was a poet named Prattwhose meter fell painfully flat;when told, "That won't scan,"

5 lines · limerick

The Sneezing Dragon

The QuillOak Editors

A dragon who started to sneezeset fire to forty-two trees,two barns, and a cart —

5 lines · limerick

The Caffeine Resolution

The QuillOak Editors

I solemnly swore off caffeineon Monday at seven-fifteen;by twenty past seven

5 lines · limerick

A Dog with a Plan

The QuillOak Editors

Our spaniel has buried, to date,two slippers, the remote, and a plate.When we ask him, "What for?"

5 lines · limerick

On Advice

The QuillOak Editors

"Advice" is the formal requestto bless what we've already guessed.

2 lines · epigram

On Tomorrow

The QuillOak Editors

There's nothing I can't conquer,no summit I can't claim,no task I cannot master —

4 lines · epigram

Thou and I (opening couplet)

Rumi (Jalāl al-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī)

Happy the moment when we are seated in the Palace, thou and I,With two forms and with two figures but with one soul, thou and I.

2 lines · ghazal

Common questions

What is a short poem called?

It depends on the shape: two rhymed lines are a couplet, three lines in 5-7-5 a haiku, a brief witty poem an epigram. 'Short poem' is the family name for all of them.

How short can a poem be?

Famously short — some published poems run a single line, and Muhammad Ali claimed the record with 'Me? Whee!' If line and sound are making meaning, it counts.