Here are some poetic instructions on how to write in classic poetic forms. I will post at the end of each poem a link to a more comprehensive lesson on the form.
Terza Rima:
First you start with three lines
Then you find a way
To make the first and last rhyme
The middle gives you room to play
Until the next triplet comes along,
Then that middle rhyme has to stay.
A fourth line added means no new thoughts belong.
https://poets.org/glossary/terza-rima
Heroic Quatrain:
So say you find yourself an old churchyard,
or perhaps a knight upon a noble steed,
you wouldn’t find it sad or very hard
to produce a nice quatrain to read.
Pentameter does lend a helping hand,
and so do four stanzas of four neat lines;
and if you want to add your own new brand
just change the ABAB scheme and you’ll do fine.
https://literarydevices.com/quatrain/
Ruba’i (Persian) Quatrain:
A cousin to our friend the quatrain, old
Ruba’i belongs to lands well known for gold
Old Persian wealth perfumes this verse and tells
New stories night and day with pens so bold.
https://literarydevices.com/quatrain/
Ottava Rima:
As Yeats knows well, the heart of poetry
is often found in form. Ottava Rima,
“The poet’s dream,” protects this heart, but he
also knows to slant his rhymes, to dream,
and so we have a special symmetry
as well as an extra line and schema
with which we write to our young hearts’ desire
bad poetry, to greatness it only aspires.
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-ottava-rima-poetry
Rhyme Royale:
A classy way to write your lover
is and will never be the rhyme royale.
At first it was G. Chaucer who wrote in his
old books, Lord Henry soon declared: “This shall
be called Rhime Royale!” Seven lines - no grand mal -
The final two tie up old thoughts with ease -
Use pentameter and you can do what you please.
https://www.britannica.com/art/rhyme-royal
Spenserian Stanza:
Unique in its own right, this stanza climbs
and curls like vines and five feet long it wraps
its body tight around a trunk of rhymes.
Ed Spenser does his best to suck the sap
from trees of words, which makes me think perhaps
if I were too to love this verse, and take
its vines into my hands, lay them on my lap,
and sit and let them climb my brain, and make
me feel at home, my page would be at once awake.
https://www.writeawriting.com/poetry/spenserian-stanza/
Ballad (just a ballad, just for fun):
Now gather round and let me tell
the tale of Danny Wise:
And how his sweet wife Annabelle
did suck out both his eyes.
And if I tell the story true
and if I tell it clear
There’s not a mortal one of you
won’t shriek with mortal fear.
Before she sucked his eyes right out,
she called him her true love,
and after that she cried aloud
“YOU NEVER SAY THE SAME
I saw you look at that
old dame who lives across the street
so now I’m eating both your eyes
instead of eating meat!”