楚辭和一般的先秦詩相比，特徵明顯，有一定的格律，但可惜歷來研究楚辭格律的著作並不多見。在楚辭中，屬於新創體式的有「離騷型」和「九歌型」兩種。「離騷型」可以分為「○○○○兮，○○○○」和「○○○○○‥‥‥兮，○○○○○‥‥‥」，兩類，而「九歌型」也可以分為「(○) ○○兮○○」和 「○○○兮○○○」兩類。「離騷型」的節奏是「○︱○○︱虛︱○○︱ (兮)」，而「九歌型」則是「(○)︱○○︱兮︱○○」及「○︱○○︱兮︱○︱○○」。韻式方面，「離騷型」和「九歌型」的韻式都是偶數隔句押韻，但「九歌型」還有一種連續押韻的次要韻式。最後，楚辭體式與其他詩體相區別之處，除了「兮」字的特殊用法外，還有「二一二」這種核心結構。

In contrast to other pre-Qin poems, Chu ci 楚辭 poems have rather distinctive features. However, such features have rarely been analysed prosodically. There are two novel styles in Chu ci poems: the Li sao 離騷 style and the Jiu ge 九歌 style. The Li sao style has two sentence patterns: “0 0 0 0 (x), 0 0 0 0” and “0 0 0 0 0... (x), 0 0 0 0 0...”, as has the Jiu ge style: “(0) 0 0 (x) 0 0” and “0 0 0 (x) 0 0 0” , with “0” denoting a Chinese character and “x” the word xi兮. The rhythm of the Li sao style is “0 / 00 / (y) / 00 / (x)” and that of the Jiu ge style is “(0) / 00 / (x) / 00” and “0/ 00 / (x) / 0 / 00” ,with “y” denoting a filler word. The rhyming words in both the Li sao and Jiu ge styles fall on every even-numbered line, but the Jiu ge style has a secondary rhyme-scheme whereby the rhyming words fall on consecu­tive lines. Finally, apart from the special use of the word xi, what distinguishes the poetic forms of the Chu ci from other poetic forms is their core structure “00/ 0 / 00”.