Why Not Rhyme?
Rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds. There are several different kinds of rhymes:
Perfect rhyme: the repetition of the same sound.
Masculine rhyme: a strong end rhyme: tall/call
Feminine rhyme: a weak end rhyme: never/clever
Sight rhyme: doesn’t rhyme but looks like it should: love/stove
Slant rhyme: doesn’t rhyme, but sounds similar: game/gone
Many people, especially those new to writing poetry, believe that a poem has to rhyme. In their enthusiasm to rhyme they fall into the trap of forcing the rhyme.
I have had people tell me that they didn’t force the rhyme because they wrote it very quickly. That is not what someone is talking about if they say in a critique that your rhyme feels forced. There are a number of ways to define forced rhyme:
1. The rhyme only works if you pronounce it unnaturally, for example:
His wallet he has forgotten
Who would have thoughten.
It may work in a limerick, but if you are writing serious poetry, you will want to stay away from this form of word manipulation.
2. In order to get the end rhyme right, you have an unnatural word order, for example:
He dashed behind the tree
“You’re it,” said she!
Yes, Shakespeare and Coleridge got away with this unnatural word order, but who of us can compare to these masters?
3. A word thrown in just because it rhymes, for example:
The lawyer was very terse,
and so I opened my purse.
What does the lawyer have to do with the purse? There is no connection, except that it rhymes, but if it is just thrown in because it rhymes, it is forced.
There are several problems with forced rhyme. It makes the subject sound trite.
My heart was so broken
but I held on to the token
while not a word was spoken
Also, it makes the write so predictable that the reader starts to anticipate the next rhyme rather than actually reading your words.
And, often it will begin to sound Dr. Seussish.
I put the card in a box
I put the card in a box
with triple locks
I put the card in a box
with triple locks
and then fed the key to an ox.
The dog
jumped over the log
and landed on a frog
Mark walks
through the park
in the dark.
These are ineffective rhymes. It feels like the rhyme is forcing us into a corner. It is both unnatural and uncomfortable. It is known among poetry editors as moon/June/spoon or pedestrian rhyme, and its presence is so pervasive that poetry markets specifically mention the use of rhyme as one of the criteria for rejection.
Another fact to take into consideration is to think about all the rhyming poems that have already been written. It is very hard to write an original rhyme. In poetry markets the rhyme has to be wildly original to be taken seriously. Pick up a copy of The Poet’s Market and see how many publishers specifically mention “no rhyme.”
One of the worst problems with writing in rhyme is that it can limit your creativity. If you just skim the surface of your subject because you do not want to lose your rhyme, then you are letting your rhyme confine your writing. Don’t be afraid to abandon that rhyme and dig deeper. You may surprise yourself.
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Comments
1 - 56 of 56
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Rhyming
very interesting and informative, for the other
side of the coin give my "Poetricality" a glance
you'll love it.George!!! -
Interesting and informative. Thank you for putting this together for AP readers to read.
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Thankyou for posting this helpful column.The advice is clear and constructive.Am bookmarking to assimilate again and also to refer anyone else who may find it helpful.
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Good explanation of Rhyme theory.
Rick -
Nice work
Thank you for sharing this. I am new to writing poems, and I personally find it difficult to write a poem that does not rhyme. I have tried but then after reading it over, it makes no sense. I feel I can rhyme ok, without forcing it, but I would sure like some help to write a poem without rhyme. Any suggestions for this? -
a much needed topic for review
I so appreciate you addressing this issue and sharing your opinion of rhyming poetry and what seems to be acceptable and what doesn't. I have been writing for about five years now and
keeping bumping into the walls that American critics have seemingly erected towards rhyming poets. Form poems are not at all welcomed by publishers at the present time and while America seems to be in love with the prose, I feel that they seem to miss a lot of what the greats did with rhyme. I have attended several poetry classes and they all seem to quote various "olde rhyming" poetry while trying to get one to understand what prose is all about. I have also found that there are people in other parts of the world who throughly enjoy the skill of writing rhyme and support those whose "voice" seems to be best utilized by adhereing to the voice that speaks in rhyme. I have also had some of my poems made into music because they were lyrical and balanced. I read a lot of poetry that is non rhyming and it's hard to find good poets in that genre as well ... I am working at adjusting to the current trend in this country by playing with some of my old works and rearranging them into the message without the rhyme. It's challenging but fun as should any art be. I would love to hear your opinion of my opinion! My website is:
www.geocities.com/waydownuponjoy
I will be looking into your links as well and Congrats on being published! joy
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Nicely portrayed and and helpful to alot.
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You are young. You will grow out of it
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4 Stars ****
hello wonderful person,
First of all thanks for sharing your knowledge with us, now i have a clear mind on whats force rhyme and whats now... majority of my poems rhyme. I am a rhymer and though there are time when we have to change the format a little to get an appropriate rhyme,i still like to rhyme... personal opinion
Aha!! And who knows if we have some of like shakepeare around us ?? ...
take cares and have a nice time my dear friend.... just keep it up..... your humble little friend.... .... 
..... ..... - vic ( who else? )
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When I was younger I know my rhyming was forced - I didn't know it at that point but going through my older work now I cringe at the sight! I have been trying for months to perfect this rhyming...But I just can't seem to get it right...Thats why I've started to write a bit of non-rhyming free verse, etc. This column is so true - you're limiting your creativity when you rhyme and most of the time it comes out forced anyway. Great job on this!
♥
~Lana
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From your prescriptivist slant in this article I can assume that you wrote this for beginners and this is good. It's good to know the basics. I started off using rhyme as well (somewhat badly lol) before branching off and finding my element in free form. I still manage good rhyming pieces and this article hits home to me that, as implied, it is important to appreciate a form for what it is: a medium for expressing ideas. Thus a poet can manipulate form for the idea of the poem.
As for Colerige and Shakespeare, I think they're masters because someone decided that they should be and that someone or those someones were in positions that allowed thier word to be taken as literary gospel. Eg. Shakespeare's plays were performed before Monarchs Elizabeth 1st and James 1st. How would a Queen not approve of his placing a strong female character in his play in a time when women were considered secondary to men? How would James 1st not take Shakespeare's use of Scottish generals Banquo and Macbeth in "Macbeth" as a compliment to the Monarch's scottish ancestry? With such powerful backing it is no wonder he was considered a master! I admire his work and reel from it's genuine excellence. But I do believe that excellence is not what got him recognized! WE decide what we find good, for personal reasons and we promote it.
Reading other comments, I came across the one above written by Slaton. And I must say I agree. English is not as simple as being English. There are hundreds of different dialects and to also be considered are the Creoles, thier cousins, which usually share the same vocabulary as the Standard but differ sometimes vastly in pronunciation. There is also an individual's ideolect to take into account. As a linguist, I see rhyme as a very complex pattern that, as Slaton implies, differs because of pronunciations (that are not wrong but simply different)and because language is so generative, I feel that in our time, rhyme should not be boring since language is constantly changing. Rhyme may still have something to offer in Modern times, especially in terms of it's cultural aesthetic value.
I enjoyed this article very much. And I can see that you put a lot of work into it. I take a descriptive rather than prescriptive stance on most poetry and so, I applaud you article for it's value. And I know that it will help many more beginners and simultaneously challenge those who have been writing for a longer while.
gypsybelle. -
Great write
While I agree about what you say you left out another type that occurs more often than not and that is the incidental rhyme. Most persons reading what I write that passes as poetry often tell me that my rhyme is forced but they fail to see that though the line may appear to rhyme the other stanza do not and as such wht they read as a rhyme is really not. Secondly, persons critiquing fail to consider cultural differences and dialects. The fact is that while poetry is written it is often of a spoken form and unless you understand the culture from which the author is writing then your judgement will be frayed.
It is true arguments can be made that English is English but the fact is in the world it is not. I remember at University we had a class of Trinidad and Tobagonian's* of which I am one, Two British born girls a Canadian, an American, a Jamaican, a St. Lucian, a Grenadian etc. We were all nominally English speakers yet for the first few days we had no idea what each other was saying. That was because we used different sentence structures, rates of speaking, and contortions of words so much so that we all found it difficult to communicate until we started to speak slowly to each other. of course by the end of the year somewere able to understand others better whilst others still were of the opinion that we were not speaking English. That being so I have written on my page that my poetry is influenced by the beat and the rhythmns of my islands and whether you find it hard to get the line to make sense rhythmically or rhyme (if I write a rhyme) really does not matter to me. what matters is that in critiquing poetry you should be cognisant at all times that poetry is about the poet not the reader or listener. It is about their ability to say what needs to be said not say what a person may want to hear.
Its a great column and it provides a lot of salient information that I am sure has been utilized by many but in framing it the way you have you have opened the door to the overzealous. Rhyme or not, its not important. Understand what you need to say and the best way of saying it is far more important.
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It is similar to shooting fish in a barrel; but only when you reach a level of mastery of the language you are waxing poetic in at the time.
Rhyme is TOUGH for many people, otherwise you would not have felt compelled to write a column about it-
The more fluid grace you exercise over the language, the easier rhyming becomes, because you open up other options and alternatives...exotic words abound.
There IS a great deal of fun in extending a rhyme as far as you can- it is a testing ground, in a way, for understanding your grasp on the language. -
Come on, what's the fun in just rhyming with lots of words ending in -tion, shooting fish in a barrel, did you not read the column you commented on, just kidding.
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Bravo, the amount of times I have had to read highly unconvincing rhyme, now if anyone were to question a critique I only have to give them this link.
Just one thing when you talk about the originality of rhyme, what do you mean? For me personally there are rhymes that are just ridiculous like sky/high with the word love chucked in somewhere, but most I think most rhymes can be given a fresh spin when used in an unusual context, part of a greater cohesive role.
Once more Bravo! -
This is an excellent column, and I shall be referring other people to it in some of my critiques. Well done.
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When you rhyme in poems it must be right,
for if it's forced it sounds quite trite
take care to pick and choose your diction
so that your words face no restriction
and your image is allowed ample depiction
between rhymes and results there should be no friction.
ummm...um.....dereliction? LOL
Actually, I did learn a lot about forced rhyme, and it's all very true, so bravo...I plan to use rhyme in my poems anyway, because it provides a challenge (and I love rhythm so much that I infuse it even into my poetry whenever I get a chance) but I have seen a lot of forced rhyme, I myself use it once or twice to get the job done occasionally (hope nobody notices)
once again, Bravo. -
Some people are natural rhymers and can not write a bad rhyme. I unfortunately am not one of them Good luck to you.
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Great Advice
I am a rhymer, I try not to force rhyme and have been rhyming my work forever, it is so hard for me to write free style, yet I can do it in a tanka or haiku? I have a rhymer I am going to chance on submission, if I get thrown out, I will try harder to be a better rhymer! Helpful piece here, I need all the help I can get! Did not know rhymes were so taboo! Nice to know especially when it is what you consider your strong suite! -
Thank you so much for writing a guide about this. Forced rhyme makes me nauseated. :/
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excellent column, I'm a firm believer in meaning over sound- after all, you need to be sound to have some meaning and not meaning to sound...ok bad pun...you should cover bad puns in another colum
excellent coverage -
Very informative and all comments made are informative as well. Thank you for having this posted so that we may all learn.
Blessings to you,
Rev. Alimae -
This is a very interesting and informative column. Even though I have been a writer for several years it has still helped me improve my writing mainly with my rhyming schemes. I look foreward to seeing more helpful columns like this in the near future.
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Well said! Bravo!
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Damn Interesting Point of View
This is an interesting way to look at it. I am still fairly new to poetry and while I am open to both rhymed and un-rhymed, strict-form and free-form poetry, I always prefer to rhyme in strict form. I guess you could say that I love the challenge of it, but I don't just write a bunch of senseless babble that rhymes, I actually draft it from free-form first, so that I can have some deep thoughts in there as well, like my poem "Psyche's Chestnut Halides". But what you say seems true even to a novice like me, and I know this because very few of the people who have read the poems I write like this have actually caught on to the meaning and the hidden meanings in it because it rhymes and they don't take it as seriously. Usually what I have to do is write an insanely long author's notes section just to make sure people understand it, but then very few people read author's notes if they are miles longer than the poem itself. I will try to give more respect to free form inclusive poetry now though, thanks to you
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very good
Well I have written Rhyme but that is what I know but I will try Acrostics type of poetry for this column for this contest but I don't know if it will be good and I will refer to this column to work on my poetry. Very good. -
A wonderful column full of good sound advice – the sad thing is I love to rhyme – I suppose it is a curse but I cant help it – I do of course do non rhyming poems at times - which I must say is much easier in my eyes – but that is just me. But for sixty years now I have just been writing for fun and it is hard to change what you enjoy – Albert.
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Thanks for the advice! I try not to rhyme in serious poems, it makes it more funny and less serious, and limits your vocabulary. Instead I use a beat.
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Danna and Balladeer...
I would like to thank both of you for your wisdom and your willingness to help. I am here to learn, I want to learn to write, stories and poetry, usually the only comments that I get is nice job, good job, great write, nice poem, I appreciate the comments but I want help as well so that i may expand my works. I will take these words of advice and I will put them in action.
I know that i have tried to force rhyme and you are absolutley right, it limited my story so much that i could not wait for the end of it to come. If I had just written it in story form than poetry form I know that it would have been a better story and have thought many times on rewriting it, but then I think again and it was a learning experience.
Thank you again and will accept any help that i can get to become the writer that i know I could be!
S~
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Thank you, Balladeer. I could not agree more with you. Your points can not be argued.
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I think the most important question a poet must ask himself is, "Why do I want to write poetry?" If one wants to write for the fun of it, that's fine. If one wants to write for the social exchange between other poets, that's good, too. Rules need not be important, neither does a desire to be an expert in the field. Writing can just be fun for the heck of it. You will not be as good as an experienced poet, nor will you get the accolades expert poets get, but you shouldn't expect it. It is not the object of your actions. If, however, you want to be the best poet you can be and write the best poems you are capable of writing, then you have to study and work at it. There are not many people who do that and those who criticize rhyming poetry are even fewer. There is nothing better than good rhyming poetry. On the other hand, there is nothing worse than bad rhyming poetry. There are so many pitfalls in rhyme. As has been discussed, "cheap" rhymes sound bad. Lack of proper meter sounds bad. Writing a poem which is a slave to the rhyming words, and therefore restrictive to the thought processes is bad. To avoid these pitfall requires study and work. There are four major meters - iambic, trochaic, anapestic and dylactic. Learn them. There are a variety of poetry stlyes, from ballads to haikus to sonnets to villanelles to triolets and so on and so on. Learn them. I could teach each one here but why? We all have computers. We all have search engines. Look them up and study them, learn them and apply them. It takes work.
Mary had a little lamb.
It's fleece was white as snow.
Everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go.
Yes, a silly little rhyme that millions of Americans know. Anyone could write that, right? It alternates between iambic lines and trochaic lines. The syllables and accents are exact. Write one, using the same criteria....it doesn't become such a silly little rhyme any more, does it? Most of those who say they don't like rhymed poetry don't know how to write it. If they did, they would overcome all of the restrictions they claim it has.....but that takes work and the majority of those people are not willing to put out the effort. They prefer a style with few or no rules....that's fine.
True, the majority of magazines accepting submissions want free verse instead of rhyme. Why? First, free verse poetry tends to be shorter and space is always at a premium. Second - well, that's the world we live in today. Last week on 60 Minutes there was a story on a 5 year old girl who has made over $300,000.00 so far by scribbling and dripping paint on a canvas. She is being called a genius and her average painting sells for around thirty thousand. That is also the world we live in today so, if your object of writing poetry is to be published then, by all means, stay with free verse. On the other hand, pick up a copy of The Best Loved Poems of the American People and you will see that over 90% of the poems rhyme. Think of the poems you learned in school and the majority rhyme. If you want poems that will be remembered, that people will relate to and keep with them, then rhyme suits this goal better. The choice is yours.
To sum it up.....(1) determine why you want to write, (2) study the forms and learn the rules and (3) work your ass off to be as good as you can be. I'll close this with the opening stanzas of a poem that I wrote which expresses what I have written here and my philosophy of writing...and even life.
My poems may not be classics.
They may never make the grade
That separates the amateurs
From masters of their trade.
They may never reach anthologies
Or even magazines
Or ever be considered masterful
By any means.
They may go through Time unnoticed
But one thing I promise you
Is - whatever I may offer
Is the best that I can do. -
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Thank you...Balladeer
What I know for certain is
your rhyme is never stark;
I read your verses eagerly
because they are a lark.
Humor and levity, especially,
smile upon your pages,
But when they don't, brilliance
glows and wisdom of the ages.
Some would call my praises trite,
bad poems from the start,
but I remain an ardent fan
because I love your heart!
Klassy Lassy
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wow... that's so wow
wow... that's so wow!!
now i know!!!
thank you very much!!
thanks for sharing it with us!!
more power!!
~dycz! -
I'll say this much...I personally think it's harder TO rhyme than not too...that is why I stick with free-verse. But when I say rhyme, I mean GOOD rhyme...I liked your excellent example of Sexton...but then again, I have yet to read anything by that woman that I simply did not ADORE! lol IF the rhyming is done well, not forced, it can be very beautiful and extremely haunting...but I feel that a lot of people either don't put enough time or energy into it that it just sounds like crap. And that's when I reach for the bottle of acid to douse my eyeballs with...lol. But to those that DO rhyme well, my hat off to you, because I suck at it, lol...interesting article, kiddo.
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hhhhmmm, expanding our horizons are we?
great illeteration of explanation!
nicely done Danna
Tamara
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I will see if I can find out who invented those terms. They have been around a long time, so I am not sure if I will be able to find someone who takes credit for them
Actually, the "feminine rhyme" has a strong stress on the first syllable, whereas the "masculine rhyme" has the strong stress on the second syllable. So they each have a stong syllable, (if they are two syllable words) it is just depends on which order the stress is on.
Did I confuse you? Because I think I confused myself
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Thank you for all the great information on rhyming. I find rhyming to be quite difficult and I will refer to your column for help when I need it!
Lorena -
Ah, you didn't give me a chance to write the pro-rhyme column. It is a big subject to tackle all at once. I am working on the counter-balance to this one. I was afraid that putting it all in one column would be too much for readers to absorb all at once. That is why this one deals specifically with forced rhyme. Thanks for reading, and I hope you stop by when I post the next one.
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Wow, Danna- Thanks for putting all this together.
I agree with your points about rhyme.
As for me, I just never think about rhyme when I write poetry.
I am curious about who invented the terms "feminine" and "masculine" rhymes--and why they are called so (though obviously feminine refers to "weak" and "masculine" to "strong")--it's just when I see those gendered words the alarm in my mind goes off. I've been taking too many classes that deal with gender issues and cultural constructions surrounding them--that's why.
Sorry for rambling.
But... thanks again for posting this.
Hope all is well with you, Danna! -
I will come back to this again and again..I can sit down and write but know nothing about poetry..thank you so much..
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I was extremely disappointed in reading this because I thought it would be unbiased, and it turned out to be a polemic against rhyme, done in a nice way, of course. However, I disagree with its conclusions, even though many of the points in it are valid. I will continue to write rhymed poems.
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Insightful and educational, and maybe a little convertational, or maybe its pratical, I don't know which, but you help me find my niche.
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Thank you, so much, NoIQ, your comment is a valuable addendum to this column.
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In regards to #2 up there, you might want to ask "who of use can compare and who of us is dead". Been going through Walden and Whitman and while I don't really care for them, I understand the need to learn from the masters.
It is important in finding our individual voices, to learn the voices of others. But I also know, if I were to get something like Whitman's "I Sing the Body Electric" across my desk right now, I'd recommend lots of cuts. (Rhyme or no rhyme!)
As for rhyme done well, again I recommend Anne Sexton's 'Unknown Girl in a Maternity Ward'. It is a phenomenal example of how to rhyme and use punctuation to emphasize, rather than detract. -
LOL, Michael, you do have a point, but I just made those lines up last night as an example. It was late, and that was all I could come up with spur of the moment. If you think of a better example to put there, let me know.
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I would add one other problem to rhyming poetry, one I myself frequently (though knowingly) violate. The great poets care about metric tone. Shakespeare and Coleridge didn't just write rhyming poetry, they wrote in iambic pentameter. Many poems do away with the meter, but when they do the author needs to think about natural flow. One thing iambic pentameter does in fact avoid is Dr. Suess rhythm, because you simply can't be too simplistic if you are writing in it. However, then you have to also think about downbeat and upbeat, etc.
Contrary to many authors on this site, I believe, however, that rhyme can, in fact, be very effective. First of all, in poems relating to humor, there is a natural flow towards irony in the use of rhyme. I think that is one reason U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins has used it so well. That is NOT to say that free verse is not equally effective at humor. However, free verse requires a different technique -- often based on sarcastic tone and imagery.
Rhyme in the hands of modern masters can be quite beautiful, in fact. T.S. Eliot wrote in it from time to time (i.e. "Whispers of Immortality," portions of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"), as did Dylan Thomas. On the other hand, Sylvia Plath studied with Robert Lowell, knew poetry inside out, and almost never used rhyme. It all depends on context and what the poet desires.
I will agree with statements Danna has made previously, but not in the present post. Modern editors do not like rhyme. You can bitch and moan about that to heart's content, but unless you (a) either REALLY impress them with rhyme; (
write plenty of great non-rhyme poems to allow yourself the luxury of convincing them to publish and occasional rhyming one; or (c) enter a contest or periodical devoted to a form of rhyming poetry (such journals do, in fact, exist), you are unlikely to see your work published outside this on-line community.
So, those who know ME may wonder, then, why I like to write so many poems that rhyme. Here's why, and I think this gets lost sometimes in the critiques on AP: I PERSONALLY feel to become a better poet, similar to the skills of musicians, you need to practice. Many poetic forms permit such practice. Alliteration, assonance, consonance, rhyme scheme, irony, etc. can be as easily explored in rondolets, terza rima, sonnets, etc. as in free verse. In some cases, it actually may be more challenging because you confront the form itself, and that produces greater creative thinking. Your vocabulary increases, as does your imagery. Avoiding cliches in a 14 line sonnet can be arguably harder than in unlimited free verse. Then there's blank verse (think Whitman), it's OWN unique category where iambic meter matters, but rhyme doesn't. Sometimes you can have fun forcing rhyme into classically non-rhyming forms (e.g. cinquains), and that requires, again, the poet to work.
In the end, we all have preferences. Danna is correct, if you choose a rhyming method, consider how you are rhyming -- just as if you choose a non-rhyming form, consider your imagery, word structure, etc. Lessons like Danna's here help everyone. Heed them, and you will improve and prosper in your own growing self-awareness of that joy. Think about what she says, and challenge yourself. Don't get lazy. 15 extra minutes to avoid a cliche or forced rhyme improves your poem exponentially.
Above all, have fun. These are my two cents on this subject -- and understand, it's just that. -
i have written both but i am partial to rhymes.i don't think people even understand what a forced rhyme is and this will help those.the thing about writing freeverse is that it's hard to do and keep that poetic tone to it.then like a previous person said,a lot of it gets jumbled up into a need to make it a poem that they rambled on and lose the essence.those that can do either are truly blessed,but i still believe that when it comes from true feelings,either way works.this is a wonderful learning tool that you offer and it will benefit many.me,i think i will always prefer the rhymes.
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Ok again my question to you is.......how do I write a good poem that DOESN'T rhyme? I have never really done that. It always sounds horrible to me. At least when I write them. I wrtie for fun, but I would still like it to be good. So if you could give me some examples of NON rhyming poems that are good, I would like that. Also if you could take some time to read my poems and be honest on what you think of them that would be great. I have had a few people tell me that what I have done isn't that great, but they do it so snooty and mean that I don't care to hear what they have to say. But if you could comment on them as a teacher with advice that would be wonderful. But only when you have time.......I have people tell me that my stuff is good. And let's face it.....everyone LOVES to get good feed back. But for once I would really like someone to give advice (with out just saying "Oh it sucks, don't write anymore") on how to make it even better. Or what I should do to change it so it is great. I am still very interested in the NON rhyming poetry. I would like to try that. Get out of my Comfort Zone if you know what I mean! LOL
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THANK YOU! my boyfriend and I argue about this all the time; he says the challenge of rhyme is better than freeverse and blah blah blah. I've read and written far too many bad, forced rhyming poems to really find it that great a form of poetry. It's so limiting and obvious.
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i thought this was very useful. i have to thank you for promoting it. i know it will not only help me but others also. i have to say thought poetry comes from the heart and if it rhymes or is forced people just write and what ever mood they are in it just comes out that way. but i wil keep this in mind when i contiune to write my poety. again thank you. ~Kim~
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Danna,
I find this very interesting, and I thank you for promoting it for the benefit of others.
I'm new to writing poetry, and in my late fifties, but I ADORE writing in rhyme.
70% of the non-rhyming prose on this site I find incomprehensible.
Perhaps I'm not too intelligent. I don't know.
Frankly, I often don't have a clue what the author is trying to say, and it drives me NUTS.
I feel bad when I click on a promoted piece and I don't understand it. I've only just learned that it really annoys people when I don't comment, so now I comment on everything, even if I don't understand.
I've just promoted a poem, in rhyme, called My First Day at The Races (or something like that).
I HAVE to admit that at times I was struggling for rhyme, and perhaps it's forced in places, which is why I found your piece above so interesting.
I'll go to your author page and try and learn some more.
Bye for now, and thanks again.
Kind regards,
Robin. -
New and improved much better now with the added bits. I agree with everything your saying here except for the line about Shakkespeare I will probably get beaten to death by some one for saying this but I absolutely can't stand his work.
But I like how you define rhymes at the beginning, I dind't know about all those defintions before, I think I would like to try and do a poem with all bits that looked like rhymes but weren't rhymes, that would be interesting.
Anyways yes yes very good points, improved quite a bit since the last version -
and I think lawyers and purses/wallets go very well together! (even if rhyming it aint clever. I'm going to quit now.)
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The dog
jumped over the log
and landed on a frog
That is a classic! I have always been lucky, most my stuff rhymes and it gets some very good reviews, I made a poem about Jack the Ripper that rhymes (and that of his crimes. lol. that wasn't in it!)
I actually find it harder to write poems that dont rhyme! And I dont "think" it has stemmed my creativity, I have rhyming poems about the afore mentioned Jack the Ripper (in intensity it is a gripper. sigh), love poems that rhyme, erotica that rhymes, war poems that rhyme, character poems that rhyme. I dont think they seem forced and no one has said so. I even have a poem about shaving a monkey that rhymes (or is that classed as erotica?) hmmm. I wish I could write without rhyming but my best stuff certainly rhymes! I do agree with what you say though, I always thought a good poem should rhyme until I joined this site.
Edited on Mar 02, 11:26 p.m. because ''. -
Very good.
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Thank you for the advice. Perhaps we should remember that in writing and expression,content is very important. Poetry comes from inside it is not contrived.....
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