A haiku, for example, is traditionally a three-line poem whose first and third lines comprise five syllables, and whose second line has seven.Ī sonnet is just another type of poem, in the same way that an apple is a type of fruit. But there are rules for specific types of poems. There aren’t really any rules for poetry in general: You can play with punctuation, rhyme schemes, formatting, grammar, and everything else as you like. Basically, it’s any collection of written or spoken words that have some sort of lyrical quality, rhythm, and/or structure that’s less straightforward than a series of sentences is. Defining the word poem isn’t that simple.
