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Some Personal Thoughts on Rhyming Poetry
As most of you know, I prersonally write a lot in rhyme. That is my first love in poetry. Here are just a few of my thoughts in over forty years of writing in rhyme. Feel free to add your thoughts to this.
It sounds forced: A lot of times it really does and most of the reasons for it is the person tries to make the verse fit with the word they have chosen when another word would do as good even if it entails changing your thought process somewhat.
It must be an exact rhyme: This is false and can lead to some really crappy rhyme. The words do not have to be an "exact rhyme". A prime example is you can use words that sound similar. Fine and time are not exact, but they are similar enough sounding to work. Just choose the closest sound. Listen to songs. A lot of the lyrics are not exact rhymes, they just sound similar.
You cannot say what you want to in rhyme: This is also false. You can do it, but it takes a lot more work than writing in freevese. A lot of poets will not write in rhyme because it takes too much thought and effort. That's a shame because a beautifully crafted rhyming poem sticks in the mind of a person much more frequently than a freeverse poem. Case in point, ask yourself this. How many song lyrics can you remember? In the old days the most important teachings and stories were written in rhyme for that very reason.
It is not enough to just rhyme a poem: This is true. For a rhyming poem to be truly effective, you must pay attention to the rhythm or meter of the poem. An easy way to think of it is to think of a drum beat. You'll have a hard beat followed by a soft beat. DAH dum, DAH dum etc.. This is a stressed syllable or word followed by an unstressed syllable or word and should be kept relatively constant in the poem.
In closing, for now, I would like to give a little personal bit of advice, especially to younger poets, but also to many others. Writing about love is fine, but look around you. There are more love poems than you can shake a stick at and the vast majority of them are bad. Craft carefully and vary your poetry. Cover different subjects and styles. Become a complete poet. Look all around you, there is NOTHING that a poem can't be made from. Whether it is stubbing your toe, going to a ball game or seeing a bird fly by. Use the world around you as a canvas to paint your words on.
Here at Neopoet, we want to help you to improve, not only your writing, but what you write about. To do this we will sometimes tear a poem apart. It is NOT aimed at you personally, but at the poem and geared to helping you improve. You may not always agree with the assessment of a poem, but there is almost always something you can learn from the comments. Sit back and read them with an open mind and look at your poem in an unbiased manner, as if it were someone else's poem and listen to what they are saying.
Last piece of advice for now. No matter what style you write in, read it out loud. This will open a new vista to you. You can find so many places where you need to make changes that I can assure you that you will be surprised!
Now, get out there and write! *S*
Respectfully,
Rett
It sounds forced: A lot of times it really does and most of the reasons for it is the person tries to make the verse fit with the word they have chosen when another word would do as good even if it entails changing your thought process somewhat.
It must be an exact rhyme: This is false and can lead to some really crappy rhyme. The words do not have to be an "exact rhyme". A prime example is you can use words that sound similar. Fine and time are not exact, but they are similar enough sounding to work. Just choose the closest sound. Listen to songs. A lot of the lyrics are not exact rhymes, they just sound similar.
You cannot say what you want to in rhyme: This is also false. You can do it, but it takes a lot more work than writing in freevese. A lot of poets will not write in rhyme because it takes too much thought and effort. That's a shame because a beautifully crafted rhyming poem sticks in the mind of a person much more frequently than a freeverse poem. Case in point, ask yourself this. How many song lyrics can you remember? In the old days the most important teachings and stories were written in rhyme for that very reason.
It is not enough to just rhyme a poem: This is true. For a rhyming poem to be truly effective, you must pay attention to the rhythm or meter of the poem. An easy way to think of it is to think of a drum beat. You'll have a hard beat followed by a soft beat. DAH dum, DAH dum etc.. This is a stressed syllable or word followed by an unstressed syllable or word and should be kept relatively constant in the poem.
In closing, for now, I would like to give a little personal bit of advice, especially to younger poets, but also to many others. Writing about love is fine, but look around you. There are more love poems than you can shake a stick at and the vast majority of them are bad. Craft carefully and vary your poetry. Cover different subjects and styles. Become a complete poet. Look all around you, there is NOTHING that a poem can't be made from. Whether it is stubbing your toe, going to a ball game or seeing a bird fly by. Use the world around you as a canvas to paint your words on.
Here at Neopoet, we want to help you to improve, not only your writing, but what you write about. To do this we will sometimes tear a poem apart. It is NOT aimed at you personally, but at the poem and geared to helping you improve. You may not always agree with the assessment of a poem, but there is almost always something you can learn from the comments. Sit back and read them with an open mind and look at your poem in an unbiased manner, as if it were someone else's poem and listen to what they are saying.
Last piece of advice for now. No matter what style you write in, read it out loud. This will open a new vista to you. You can find so many places where you need to make changes that I can assure you that you will be surprised!
Now, get out there and write! *S*
Respectfully,
Rett