It is important to remember that the verse forms described below are often ‘new’ forms and bring together multiple forms, and while rhyme scheme is a component of verse form, it is not the only significant element of identification. For example, “Frost at Midnight” is a meditative dramatic lyric written in blank verse.
The meditative lyric poem: (for an early example of a short poem see, “Lines Written in Early Spring” and for longer poems, see “Fears in Solitude”)
In which a speaker (closely linked to the poet, so often times a personal lyric ) muses about the powers of the Human Imagination and its relation to Nature, Society, as well as the speaker’s own history. Most of the meditative lyrics (although not all) end by re-enforcing the speaker’s belief in the powers of his own Imagination and the recuperative powers of Nature and Meditation to restore them.
The dramatic lyric (or what Coleridge called the conversation poem)
Developed primarily by Coleridge but we see Wordsworth employing it too (“Expostulation and Reply,” “Tintern Abbey”). It is a subset of the meditative lyric poem, in which the he addition of an auditor allows the speaker to assert a posture, belief, or observation and to imagine it either validated or questioned.
The experimental Lyrical Ballad
A poem developed by Wordsworth and Coleridge and intended to bring together the seemingly contrary qualities of the English ballad with the Classical lyric.
The experimental sonnet
In which the poet draws upon both the Italian and English traditions, as does Charlotte Smith.
The Irregular Romantic Ode
In which the poet adapts the elevated and serious tone of the classical ode to the “fluxes and refluxes” of the lyric sensibility. The Irregular Romantic Ode often draws upon both the Personal and Dramatic Lyric forms.