Are the syllable counts exact?

No, they are approximate. The counter is the same one the domain's readability tools use and it does not know a poet's elisions or how a proper noun is pronounced, so the page labels the counts as approximate rather than exact.

No. Metre is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, which is a much larger problem than counting them, and the tool does not attempt it. It reports line counts, approximate syllables and rhyme.

How is the rhyme scheme worked out?

From the final sound of each line: lines ending in the same final vowel sound are labelled with the same letter, so alternating rhymes come back as ABAB. A near rhyme therefore reads as no rhyme, which the page notes.

Which forms are included?

Haiku, tanka, limerick, cinquain, Shakespearean and Petrarchan sonnets, villanelle, sestina and free verse, each with its line count, syllable pattern, rhyme scheme and, where relevant, its metre.

Does it write or suggest anything?

No. It is a reference and a measurer. It does not suggest rhymes, generate lines or score the poem; it tells you where the draft and the form differ and leaves the decision to you.

Poetry Form Guide

Form

Fixed form3 lines

Your draft — one line per line

The form's rules

Haiku
Lines: 3
Syllables: 5-7-5
Three lines of five, seven and five syllables, usually a single image in nature.

Your draft measured

Lines

3/3

against the form's line count

Syllables

5-7-5

Rhyme reads

ABC

Form check: matches the form

Line count, syllable pattern match the form as this tool measures them.

Scope and limits

Syllables are approximate: the counter is the same one the domain’s readability tools use, and it does not know a poet’s elisions or a name’s pronunciation. Rhyme is judged by the final sound of each line, so a near rhyme reads as no rhyme.

A form check is a measurement, not a verdict. Poems break forms on purpose, free verse has no rules to fail, and metre — the pattern of stresses — is not checked here at all. The notes say where the draft and the form differ, and leave the decision to you.

The poetry form guide is a reference to the common fixed forms — haiku, tanka, limerick, sonnet, villanelle and more — plus a checker that measures a draft's lines, approximate syllables and rhyme scheme against one.

What is Poetry Form Guide?

The poetry form guide does two things: it is a reference to the fixed forms, and it measures a draft against one of them. The reference lists the haiku, tanka, limerick, cinquain, both sonnets, the villanelle, the sestina and free verse, with the line count, syllable pattern, rhyme scheme and metre that conventionally define each. Poetry has a long tradition of forms with exacting rules, and having the rules in front of you — rather than half-remembered — is most of what a guide is for.

The checker takes that reference and turns it on your draft. Write a poem, choose the form, and the tool reports how many lines it has against the form's count, approximate syllables per line against the pattern, and the rhyme scheme your lines actually use. Where the draft differs, it says so in plain terms: this many lines instead of that many, syllables reading as a different pattern, a rhyme scheme of its own rather than the expected one. None of it is a verdict — poems break forms deliberately — but a difference you can see is a difference you can choose.

The rhyme scheme is derived from the final sound of each line and labelled with letters, so four lines rhyming alternately come back as ABAB. That is a useful mirror, because a rhyme scheme intended and a rhyme scheme heard can differ. The syllable counts are approximate, using the same counter the domain's readability tools use, which does not know a poet's elisions or a name's pronunciation; the page labels them approximate because they are.

What the guide does not do is check metre. Stress patterns — iambic pentameter and the rest — are a much larger problem than counting syllables, and the tool says plainly that it does not attempt it. It also does not suggest rhymes, write lines or score a poem. It reports the form's rules and then reports the gap between them and the draft, and leaves the judgement, which is where judgement belongs.

The guide is also, deliberately, a reading list. A writer who has never counted the syllables in a haiku often finds that the three lines of five, seven and five are tighter than expected, and the same is true of a limerick's anapaestic swing or a villanelle's two refrains that repeat and finally meet. Measuring a draft against the form is a way of learning what the form asks by doing it, which is how most writers come to use these structures: not as constraints to obey, but as shapes that do work a free line cannot, and that reward a little patience with a rhythmic pleasure the unmeasured line does not have.

The form data is the conventional description of each form, not a ruling on what a poem must be. A sestina's end-word rotation, a villanelle's refrains and a sonnet's turn are described as traditions describe them, and a poem that ignores every one of them is still a poem — just not a haiku, and the tool will say so without complaint.

How to use Poetry Form Guide

Choose a fixed form: haiku, tanka, limerick, cinquain, a sonnet, villanelle, sestina or free verse.
Read the form's rules in the reference panel: lines, syllables, rhyme and metre.
Write or paste your draft, one line per line.
Read the measured lines, approximate syllables and the rhyme scheme your draft uses.
Check the notes for where the draft and the form differ, then decide what to change.

When to use Poetry Form Guide vs related tools

Use the poetry form guide when you are writing in a fixed form and want the rules and a measurement of your draft rather than a memory of them. When you want to see the structure of a longer poem as a list, the Outline Builder numbers an outline of its parts, and for a plain count of words in a draft the Word Count Tool answers quickly.

When the poem is finished and needs cleaning up for a magazine, the Markdown Editor keeps the plain text tidy while you work.

Privacy & Security

This tool runs entirely in your browser — no data ever leaves your device. There is no server round-trip, no upload, no logging, and no account required. Your input is processed locally using client-side JavaScript and is never stored, transmitted, or accessible to anyone else. When you close the tab, everything disappears.