Poetry is notoriously hard to define,

With practically as many definitions

As there are people all over the world.

But, to at least give you a nice starting point,

Here are three of the basic poem-types.

First, there's the basic, but classic couplet,

With two rhyming lines weaving a doublet.

Along the same line, there is the quatrain,

Where two lonely couplets often alternate,

Moving along their parallel lanes,

Always a distance away from their mate.

At last, Haiku, where

Five and seven syllables

Strike with precise force.

Along with these three, you have also just learned

About the more modern technique of free verse,

Where the rhyme and the meter don't really

Matter, giving free reign to inventive/lazy poets

(So no complaints about these opening and closing bits not rhyming or metering)