Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Day 20 - Rhyming Poetry (a-b-a-b pattern)

Day 20 - Rhyming Poetry  (a-b-a-b pattern)

Here’s a couple of resources you can use to find rhyming words – just type in the word in the box, click and poof ~ a rhyming word appears:

Rhyming schemes: the use of end rhymes – last sound of the end word in one line of poetry rhyming with the last sound of the end word in another line of poetry.

There are several rhyming schemes in poetry but we are going to start with the most common:
a – b – a – b

This is where the words at the end of the first and third lines rhyme and the words at the end of the second and fourth line rhyme.

You should also try to keep the meters of lines ‘a’ the same as each other and the meters of line ‘b’ the same as each other. This can be done by counting syllables. In the little 4 line example I made up, you can see the end words in the first and third lines rhyme and they both have 5 beats (5 syllables). The end words in the second and fourth lines rhyme and they both have 6 beats (6 syllables).

I went to the store
To buy a loaf of bread.
I found something more
“So typical,” I said. 
                      © Stephanie Abney 2011
                  (seems silly to copyright such a simple little sample verse but there you have it)

You can just do four lines or you can create a longer poem by making several stanzas of four lines each. Also, note that often times the very last stanza can vary, or not, but all previous stanzas should follow the pattern.

Your turn! Have fun!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

BUTTERFLIES
Butterflies are God’s glorious gift
Truly a beauty to behold
With wondrous colorful wings they drift
Wings of bright red, yellow and gold.

Swaddled in a warm sheltered cocoon,
Clinging to a limb
Until one beautiful afternoon
Are released like an unspoiled hymn.

Children are as God’s butterflies
Truly a glorious, beautiful gift to us,
Full of faith with hearts all aflutter
That they will be protected, taught, loved and blessed.
Mary L Walling 4/2011

Vicki said...

Go to Other Places

I love to read all kinds of books
They take me other places.
To worlds so strange, they have red brooks
and lots of different faces.

Some use the force to guide their lives
And guard those who are helpless.
These Jedi are the kind who thrive
on helping save a princess.

Then others have magicians small
who want to learn their lessons
And fight the evil wizards pall
as others have for eons.

So join me in imagining
These worlds of writers making
And read some books of fantasy
It always is breathtaking!

Stephanie Abney said...

Such nice images! Wonderful poems. :)