I see a lot of frustration with some poets when they are faced with form poetry that requires rhymes. Instead of facing their frustration they stick with free form and lose out on a great opportunity to explore some of the history of poetry as well as expand their own poetic skills.
1. To begin with we will look at the symbols used to explain the
rhyming sequences of form poetry.
A triolet: Each a or A rhymes with each other
Each b or B rhymes with each other
Capitals denote repeated lines.
If more rhymes are needed more letters are used but the same
rules apply.
A
B
a
A
a
b
A
B
Rondelet AbA abbA
Villanelle A1bA2 abA1 abA2 abA1 abA2 abA1A2
Rondel ABba abAB abbaAb
Rondeau Aabba aabA aabbaA
Ottava Rima ababacc
Royal rhyme ababbcc
Terza Rima aba bcb cdc dd (this can go on forever)
Note: Depending on which sourse you use these poetic forms can be listed as having different rhyming sequences.
You can see from looking at these poetic forms that sometimes you will need a lot of rhyming words. More is always better as it allows you a greater word selection to draw from.
2. Now we will look at an aid for rhyming.
Across the top of a piece of paper write the alphabet.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Also consider combinations of letters.
bl, br, ch, cl, cr, dr, fl, fr, gh, kn, ph, pr, pl, st, sh, sc, sm, .....
Now consider the word you wish to rhyme. I will use "art" for the example.
Moving through your alphabet find each letter that makes a word with art and write it down the right side of your blank sheet of paper. This will form your list of rhyming words to draw from.
cart, dart, heart, mart, part, tart.
chart,start, smart
Do this for each number of rhymes you will need. After a while you will no longer need the alphabet, you will have lists of rhyming words memorized, and you will find your vocabulary expanding.
macandrew
Form poetry and an aid to rhyming.
Included in the list
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1 - 23 of 23
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Thanks for clarifying some points which I had been wondering about and thanks for taking the time to add this and giving us the chance of reading. Thanks again
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very good
This is a wonderful suggestion. I remember reading of parlor games where they would try to make rhymes for words. A really good suggestion.
thanks,
Talia -
Ah, thank you for writing this. I'm reading up on form poetry, rhyme, meter, all that sort of thing before beginning my villanelle class, so this is very helpful. I don't want to be stuck with cliched rhymes or not be able to rhyme at all. This is a nice way to step away from my free verse addiction and into the wonderful world of rhyming. Sorry, Disney moment there...I love those wonderful world of disney movies...er, sorry. Rambling. Love, Jen.
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I have a good ryming poem..
http://allpoetry.com/Poem/429390 -
great idea, i usually dont write rhyming poetry because my vocab is too tiny, lol, and also because usually when i write something i write it while i am feeling the emotion, and so i basically write whatever comes out.. but rhyming poems and structured poems do help get past writers block, so it IS a good idea. although writing a villianelle looks like it would be hell, eeh, very scary looking rhyme scheme thing lol. ^_^.
-taori -
I've actually been searching fo rsome rhyme and meter info. Thank you so much. I will definitly be using this.
~ELLE -
thx- most of my poems rhyme...I write better that way, now I actually can think of some good ones! nice tutorial.
xXxColleenxXx -
Hey, I bet you could design a computer program with the As and Bs lined up perfectly, and write out a formula that would fit together the words that rhymed, and fill in the rest with a stock of "meaningful" phrases, and then put together a book of this sort of thing and sell it to the masses, because, well, they don't know anything about poetry, anyway, do they, and you know what? I bet it would sell better than a book of my stuff, or your stuff, so what would you need poets for then? Losers, they should go get real jobs, and learn how to program computers to write poetry.
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I love well done form poetry. I prefer to write free form in my own writing, but I also enjoy exploring the variety of forms out there. It is a challenge that helps to become a better poet I think.
Great column. Thanks for sharing and putting so much effort into helping inform others.
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This is an interesting thing and one which completely eludes me as I would write as much rhyming poetry as anybody on this site. What interests me is how others go about it. I think rhyming dictionaries should be burnt and if a person is having that much trouble to come up with a natural rhyme to what they are writing about, either don't rhyme or don't write. Writing to a restrictive style might be clever but the reality is these poetry styles were born out of a time and out of the fact everything rhymed and the only thing that sometimes made these poems different was their structured style. Also when these styles were created there was no such thing as ryhming dictionaries. I believe a writer needs to ask themselves whether ot not they want to write rhyme or poetry. From the heart or the head. Rarely would it take me more than 10 minutes for me to write a rhyming poem. The exception, I did one the other day and it took me half an hour to list some of the reasons why people stop making love. But once I had that list completed it took no time at all to ryhme "Is It In?". The reason I say this is you have to be inspired first and for most and the end word or the AABB or ABAB etc should not be the focus ever for the poet. Brilliant poetry is such because words run through the entire line that lace together and link like the most ornate of lace cloth. It reads right through and the rhyme becomes almost invisible to the overal beauty of what you are expressing. It is the difference between Mozart writing an opera straight out of his head and someone else plodding away at a piano then writing. To steal a line out of Star Wars- let go Luke - let the Force be with you. Throw away your ryhming dictionaries, your abcdef...across the top of the page and pick up a normal dictionary learn five new words a day and increase your word stock by 1500 words a year and you will have the correct words to ryhme. What is more your poems will have greater melody because when you read them back you will have sufficent word stock to change some sords that will improve the meter, meaning and overal sound of what you are saying. If you want to write this sort of poetry, read good rhyming poetry and try and understand what they are doing and realise great poetry is found at the start of the sentence not the end. Use adjectives to make the poem vivid. Run your thoughts into the next line so you are rhyming through the sentence not just at the end and read a dictionary and don't try and take short cuts. But above all else, be inspired.
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Are you John ? Let's hope
John
This is an interesting thing and one which completely eludes me as I would write as much rhyming poetry as anybody on this site. What interests me is how others go about it. I think rhyming dictionaries should be burnt and if a person is having that much trouble to come up with a natural rhyme to what they are writing about, either don't rhyme or don't write. Writing to a restrictive style might be clever but the reality is these poetry styles were born out of a time and out of the fact everything rhymed and the only thing that sometimes made these poems different was their structured style. Also when these styles were created there was no such thing as ryhming dictionaries. I believe a writer needs to ask themselves whether ot not they want to write rhyme or poetry. From the heart or the head. Rarely would it take me more than 10 minutes for me to write a rhyming poem. The exception, I did one the other day and it took me half an hour to list some of the reasons why people stop making love. But once I had that list completed it took no time at all to ryhme "Is It In?". The reason I say this is you have to be inspired first and for most and the end word or the AABB or ABAB etc should not be the focus ever for the poet. Brilliant poetry is such because words run through the entire line that lace together and link like the most ornate of lace cloth. It reads right through and the rhyme becomes almost invisible to the overal beauty of what you are expressing. It is the difference between Mozart writing an opera straight out of his head and someone else plodding away at a piano then writing. To steal a line out of Star Wars- let go Luke - let the Force be with you. Throw away your ryhming dictionaries, your abcdef...across the top of the page and pick up a normal dictionary learn five new words a day and increase your word stock by 1500 words a year and you will have the correct words to ryhme. What is more your poems will have greater melody because when you read them back you will have sufficent word stock to change some sords that will improve the meter, meaning and overal sound of what you are saying. If you want to write this sort of poetry, read good rhyming poetry and try and understand what they are doing and realise great poetry is found at the start of the sentence not the end. Use adjectives to make the poem vivid. Run your thoughts into the next line so you are rhyming through the sentence not just at the end and read a dictionary and don't try and take short cuts. But above all else, be inspired.
David
If you want to read a great rhyming poem on this site
allpoetry.com/Poem/263588
If you want to see how I rhyme here are three poems that all took less than five minutes to write and another five to edit
allpoetry.com/Poem/379469
allpoetry.com/Poem/403258
allpoetry.com/Poem/379559
Good poetry is better than good rhyme. And as poetry is a combination of words and feeling- give yourself enough words to express what you feel and the rhyme and structure of the poem will look after its self
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i so use the alphabet like before i read this i've always used it, it helps a whole lot but i like the combination of them i dont do that so i should start thats a great idea thanks for sharing. would this like help for not forcing ryhmes? because i do that often and its sad.
-amanda- -
Thanks for the inforation. It was easily read and has a common sense approach.I tend to rhyme without thinking, although I have recently begun to expirement with form and I found this has improved my ability to rhyme and not sound forced. Do you know anything about changing trochet voice into iambic?
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HEY!!! thats really good idea man!!! this cud help me alote since i am lousy at poems....but umm...yeah......laters and thanx
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A good informative piece Macandrew, it's good to see some of the many variants listed in a clear and easy to follow lay-out. So often people believe to rhyme, it has to be in couplettes, and they never experiment with the full scale of rhyme. Hopefully this will inspire more to try new forms.
Andrew -
This is really awesome. I love rhyme, but tend to stick to the basic ABAB or even more basic 2nd and 4th line thing. The forms listed and the idea for extending rhymings list with the common first letter combos are great, and will be very helpful. Thanks for posting this.
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Thanks, John- this is a useful tool. You managed to make it very simple... I find rhymezone.com an invaluable help. I wish you'd add a bit about perfect and imperfect rhymes with some examples of "almost rhymes" that aren't. I can't seem to explain it well, and people end up insulted instead of understanding the concept.
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Ahh...thank you John! Wonderful information that all of us can use I'm sure. I know I for one will be book marking this article. Thank you so much again for your help and guidance!
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fascinating and well written
This was fascinating and very well done. I have only had the briefest, most cursory education regarding poetry (way back in high school...a million or so years ago
). So, this was very interesting to me. I have read poetry and written it since I was a child, but never really recognized the "rules" involved. Beginning next week, I am going to be taking a poetry writing class at the local community college and am alternately terrified and excited by the prospect of learning more about the "rules". Your column served to dissipate some of the more negative feelings related to this, and fed my interest in the subject. For that, I am very grateful. Thanks so much for taking the time and expending the energy on behalf of those of us here at AP who still have so much to learn.
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Thank you John for sharing this very helpful column.I have been a rhymer for as long as I can remember but never went about it in a systematic manner.Now I know how and it helps a lot.Form poetry has always fascinated me and I have tried a few and I do want to try the triolets at which you are very very good.Thank you once again and wishing you a very happy new year 2004.
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I like to use a good rhyming dictionary when a rhyme doesn't come naturally. That way I'm not limited by lack of vocabulary or the faulty firing of my aging neurons. Sometimes using the dictionary will send me off in new and better directions. Also useful is a thesaurus, the real Roget's, not the simplified dictionary-form one. This is an amazing resource that is organized by nuance of meaning, so you can look up what you want to say and find a multitude of ways to say it; sometimes I drop the original word I wished to rhyme in favour of something richer.
Until I joined the AP community, I didn't pay much attention to classic forms, but there are some of you here (including yourself, John) who are very skilled at using them; I find it so impressive that people can actually say something well with such restriction. Maybe I'll give it a go myself....
Good of you to share this information. I had tried searching the net for guidelines to form, but you have to know what you're looking for. This is really helpful. Thank you
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Oh, this is nicely laid out, not too complex and very straightforward.
When I first began rhyming I used the alphabet across the top, and even now when I attempt a form, I often revert back to it, .. I also make use of on-line rhyming dictionaries if I am stuck. It helps a great deal to expand one's vocabulary which I think really is a must when rhyming if one doesn't want to be stuck with 'only one or two options'..
Great advice and well written.
~~whims -
spiffy
cool and yes, i am hopeless at rhyming......whenever i rhyme it sucks, that's pretty much the rule. anyway. these poetic forms are spiffy, i always find it spiffy when they have random poetic forms with random rhymes in random places. it's probably not random actually, but it seems random. you can make a random letter sequence, for ex abaCabbC and call it Groovy Mexican Salad and there's a new poetic form.
i'm rambling. thank you.
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