Poetry Worksheets

Poetry is writing arranged in lines instead of paragraphs. Poets choose every word for its meaning and its sound. They group lines into stanzas, the way a story groups sentences into paragraphs. Many poems use rhyme (snow and grow), rhythm (the beat you hear when you read aloud), and meter (a beat that repeats in a pattern, like da-DUM da-DUM). Poets also paint pictures with imagery, words for the five senses, and with comparisons: a simile uses like or as (the moon hung like a lantern), a metaphor says one thing is another (the highway was a river of red lights), and personification gives human actions to a thing (the rusty gate complained).

Not every poem rhymes. Free verse has no set rhyme pattern and no set beat. It sounds like natural speech, and the poet decides where each line ends. A line break makes the reader pause, so a short line can make one word stand out.

These poetry worksheets are written for 5th graders, ages 10 and 11. Two anchor charts explain twelve poetic devices with examples. Practice pages ask children to name the device in a line. Every poem is original: a rhyming poem about a family night without power, a free verse poem set in a laundromat, a poem about three generations skipping stones at the same creek, and a funny poem for two voices, a dog and a cat. Questions ask children to explain figurative language, tell how the stanzas fit together, find the theme, and compare points of view, quoting lines as evidence.

Planning pages help children write a free verse poem and a poem for two voices. For short forms with strict rules, see the haiku and limerick pages.