VARIOUS kinds of poems are known by certain names, which are defined as follows:

Odes. - Sacred hymns, such as are sung in church.

Paeans. - Songs of praise and triumph.

Ballads. - An easy form of descriptive verse, written in such style as to be easily sung by the people, who may have little acquaintance with music.

* From the Latin word pastor. a shepherd.

Epigrams. - A short poem, witty and concise, treating of a single subject, usually ending with an unexpected, ingeniously expressed natural thought.

Sonnets. - The Sonnet is a poetical composition, consisting of fourteen lines, so constructed that the first eight lines shall contain but two rhymes, and the last six but two more; and so arranged that, in the first part, the first line is made to rhyme with the fourth, fifth, and eighth - the second rhyming with the third, sixth, and seventh, while in the second part, the first, third, and fifth; and the second, fourth, and sixth also rhyme with each other, as shown in the following:

Autumn

" The blithe birds of the summer tide are flown;

Cold, motionless, and mute, stands all the wood,

Save as the restless wind, in mournful mood, Strays through the tossing limbs with saddest moan. The leaves it wooed with kisses, overblown

By gusts capricious, pitiless and rude,

Lie dank and dead amid the solitude; Where-through it waileth, desolate and lone. But with a clearer splendor sunlight streams

Athwart the bare, slim branches; and on high Each star, in Night's rich coronal that beams,

Pours down intenser brilliance on the eye; Till dazzled Fancy finds her gorgeous dreams

Outshone in beauty by the autumn sky."

Cantatas. - The Cantata is a musical composition, partaking of the nature of an anthem, being intermixed with airs and recitatives; and may be adapted to a single voice, or many.

Charades. The Charade may be in either prose or poetry, and contains as a subject a word of two syllables, each forming a distinct word; these to be concealed in an enigmatical description, first separately and then together.

Canzonets. - A short song consisting of one, two, or three parts is termed a Canzonet. The following, of two parts, is an illustration.

Black Eyes And Blue

Black eyes most dazzle in the hall; Blue eyes most please at evening fall. The black a conquest soonest gain; The blue a conquest most retain; The black bespeak a lively heart Whose soft emotions soon depart;

The blue a steadier flame betray, That burns and lives beyond a day; The black may features best disclose; In blue may feelings all repose : Then let each reign without control, The black all mind - the blue all soul.

Epitaphs. - An Epitaph is usually a stanza in poetry, which follows the inscription on a tombstone.*

Satires. - The Satire is a poem used in exposing folly and wickedness, in keen, cutting words; holding the same up to ridicule and contempt.

Parodies. - A ludicrous imitation of a serious subject, usually in rhyme, is termed a Parody , as follows -

" Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed - Close at my elbow stir their lemonade."

Prologues. - The Prologue is a short poem, introductory to a play or discourse, usually recited before the performance begins.

Epilogues. - The Epilogue is a short poem, which frequently reviews the principal incidents of the play, delivered by one of the actors at the close of a dramatic performance.

Impromptus. - An Impromptu is a poetical composition, made at the moment, without previous study.

Acrostics. - An Acrostic is a stanza of several lines, the first letters of which, taken in their order from top to bottom, make a word or sentence.

Friendship, thou 'rt false ! I hate thy flattering smile !

Return to me those years I spent in vain,

In early youth, the victim of thy guile,

Each joy took wing, ne'er to return again -

Ne'er to return; for, chilled by hopes deceived,

Dully the slow-paced hours now move along;

So changed the time, when, thoughtless, I believed

Her honeyed words, and heard her syren song.

If e'er, as me, she lure some youth to stray,

Perhaps, before too late, he '11 listen to my lay.

* See chapter on Epitaphs.