Let’s look at what we have seen so far. The couplet means a couple (2) lines together. The quatrain means four lines. Now we are going to look at the triplet, which means three (3). Three lines, that is.
Here’s a triplet from my poem “A Little Peace and Quiet, Please!”
Down the street hammers pound (A)
A truck backs up (B)
It makes that beeping sound (A)
The rhyme pattern here is ABA, but that’s not the only pattern you can use. How about AAA? Or AAB? Or ABB? Or no rhyme at all! Just three lines. You could do any of these.
I’ll try using these right off the top of my (bald) head, making the lines up as I go along:
Visiting the animals at the zoo (A)
A water buffalo blasts a “Moo!” (A)
Hey, that ox is blue! (A)
Belongs to a Bunyan named Paul (A)
That tall tale guy I saw (A)
In a book about Babe the Blue Ox (B)
No, not Red Riding Hood (A)
The four-legged big guy (B)
His ears lost up in the sky (B)
Well, that’s a pretty crazy one! Not a very good poem, I’m afraid, but it does show the patterns. It’s also a lot of fun to mix the triplets with quatrains and couplets, as in “A Little Peace and Quiet, Please!”
Down the street hammers pound (A)
A truck backs up (B) (TRIPLET)
It makes that beeping sound (A)
Beep, beep, beeeep! (A)
Slam! Bam! Bam! (B) (QUATRAIN)
Beep, beep, beeeep! (A)
Bam! Slam! Slam! (B)
Even when I close my door (A)
The noise comes in (B) (TRIPLET)
I can’t take it anymore (A)
Siblings fight; One of the cries (A)
It doesn’t help to close my eyes (A) (COUPLET)
The phone rings (A)
The t.v. blares (B) (QUATRAIN)
I want SILENCE (C)
But no one cares (B)
Maybe I’ll hide under my bed (A)
Pile pillows over my head (A) (COUPLET)
Stick cotton in my ears (A)
And stay that way (B) (QUATRAIN)
For years (A)
And years (A)
Your Challenge: Try some of these patterns and post them on www.kidswrite4kids.com
(ALL material on this blog is copywritten.)
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
The Quatrain
Last time we looked at the Couplet—a couple—made of two rhymed lines: AA/BB/CC and so on. This time, I want for us to look at the Quatrain—lines coming in fours.
These are popular forms. Just listen to most any song from hip hop to church hymns, and you will most likely catch the rhyme patterns we are looking at here.
You can have lots of fun with the rhyme patterns of the quatrain. My poem “To Peanut Butter” uses a common quatrain pattern. Here’s the first stanza:
Peanut butter, peanut butter,
A culinary star!
Pack it for your lunch;
Go ahead, take the whole jar!
All the stanzas of the poem follow this same pattern: ABCB. The rhyme, of course, is the B:
Carry it up Mt. Everest (A)
Or float down the Ganges (B),
Tote it across Africa (C)
Or fly to your Aunt Angie’s (B).
It’s the perfect companion (A)
Wherever we eat (B),
And makes every meal (C)
Soooooo sat-is-fy-ing-ly complete (B).
Spread it on bread (A),
Add a little jelly (B),
Pop it in your mouth (C),
Send it to your belly (B).
Peanut butter stuck (A)
On the roof of your mouth (B)
Can’t move your lips (C)
Either north or south (B).
“Mm,” you mumble (A),
“Gibme mooooore!” (B)
Run around the corner (C)
To the peanut butter store! (B)
But this rhyme is not the only choice you can make with the quatrain. How about ABAB? I’m in the mood to share some of my goofy poems today, so here’s another called “Fred Fedora.”
Fred Fedora slurps spaghetti (A)
While sitting on his desk (B)
Talking to a girl named Betty (A)
But, oh, how grotesque! (B)
Didn’t his mother ever tell him (A)
“Don’t talk with your mouth full!”? (B)
Didn’t his father ever tell him (A),
Not to let his lips drool? (B)
He smacks his lips with glee! (A)
He bleats a blasting burp! (B)
Poor Betty wants to flee (A),
Not listen to Fred slurp! (B)
These are the two most common patterns to use in the quatrain. Sometimes they come naturally as we are writing a song or a poem; sometimes not. If I have trouble finding a rhyme or figuring out where my poems is going, I use the alphabet method discussed in my last blog. It works pretty well for me and is fun because it usually gives me a surprise.
These are popular forms. Just listen to most any song from hip hop to church hymns, and you will most likely catch the rhyme patterns we are looking at here.
You can have lots of fun with the rhyme patterns of the quatrain. My poem “To Peanut Butter” uses a common quatrain pattern. Here’s the first stanza:
Peanut butter, peanut butter,
A culinary star!
Pack it for your lunch;
Go ahead, take the whole jar!
All the stanzas of the poem follow this same pattern: ABCB. The rhyme, of course, is the B:
Carry it up Mt. Everest (A)
Or float down the Ganges (B),
Tote it across Africa (C)
Or fly to your Aunt Angie’s (B).
It’s the perfect companion (A)
Wherever we eat (B),
And makes every meal (C)
Soooooo sat-is-fy-ing-ly complete (B).
Spread it on bread (A),
Add a little jelly (B),
Pop it in your mouth (C),
Send it to your belly (B).
Peanut butter stuck (A)
On the roof of your mouth (B)
Can’t move your lips (C)
Either north or south (B).
“Mm,” you mumble (A),
“Gibme mooooore!” (B)
Run around the corner (C)
To the peanut butter store! (B)
But this rhyme is not the only choice you can make with the quatrain. How about ABAB? I’m in the mood to share some of my goofy poems today, so here’s another called “Fred Fedora.”
Fred Fedora slurps spaghetti (A)
While sitting on his desk (B)
Talking to a girl named Betty (A)
But, oh, how grotesque! (B)
Didn’t his mother ever tell him (A)
“Don’t talk with your mouth full!”? (B)
Didn’t his father ever tell him (A),
Not to let his lips drool? (B)
He smacks his lips with glee! (A)
He bleats a blasting burp! (B)
Poor Betty wants to flee (A),
Not listen to Fred slurp! (B)
These are the two most common patterns to use in the quatrain. Sometimes they come naturally as we are writing a song or a poem; sometimes not. If I have trouble finding a rhyme or figuring out where my poems is going, I use the alphabet method discussed in my last blog. It works pretty well for me and is fun because it usually gives me a surprise.
Monday, May 19, 2008
The Couplet and Finding Rhymes
Couplets
Not all poems rhyme. If you want to write unrhymed poems—hey!—that’s just fine. Many, many, many of the very best poems have no rhyme at all. They are written in “free verse.”
I am going to spend a few blog entries writing about poetic forms that do use rhyme, though, because I find rhymes fun. Finding a rhyme also often leads to surprises both in what we say in our poems and in how we end up saying it.
Maybe the easiest rhymed poetic form to understand is the “couplet.” A couplet is made of two lines (a couple—2) that each end in the same sound. Check out “Halloween” by Annie from Buffalo, NY, on www.kidswrite4kids.com:
Little ghosties in the street,
Spider dogs beneath our feet.
Eerie noises fill the air,
Skeletons give us a scare.
Goblins, heroes, and big, black cats,
Creepy witches in pointy hats.
Candle lit pumpkins shed their light,
Trick-or-treaters fill the night
This poem is written in couplets. Here is how we would describe the form:
AA/BB/CC/DD and on through the alphabet from there as the poem goes on. All this means is that the first two lines (A and A) rhyme with each other, the third and fourth (B and B) rhyme with each other, and so on.
Little ghosties in the street (A),
Spider dogs beneath our feet (A).
Eerie noises fill the air (B),
Skeletons give us a scare (B).
Goblins, heroes, and big, black cats (C),
Creepy witches in pointy hats (C).
Candle lit pumpkins shed their light (D),
Trick-or-treaters fill the night (D)
Finding Rhymes
“Ah,” you say, “that’s just fine, but I can’t think of a rhyme right off the top of my head!”
I know what you mean. I can’t either. When I am writing a new poem, I struggle. My paper is covered in crossed out lines and scribbles. It’s a terrible mess.
The margins of my papers are also covered with lists. Lists? Yup. Lists of rhymes. Here’s what I do:
Let’s say that I just wrote a line that ends with the word “dog.” I want to find a rhyme for “dog.” Okay. I start at the beginning of the alphabet and write down every word I can think of that rhymes with “dog.” Like this—
Bog, cog, fog, gog, hog, log, nog, sog, tog. I can’t think of any others right now. Maybe you can.
Now I look at that line I just wrote.
Wonderful Willie called for his dog
Then, using one of the rhymed words I found, I try a next line.
He whistled and hollered into the fog
Okay. I didn’t know at first that there would be a dog lost in the fog in my poem. Finding the rhyme gave me that idea. Now I have to see what I can do with it.
“Come, boy! Come!” calling out his name
Name? What rhymes with “name”? Well, time to go through the alphabet again.
Blame, claim, came, dame, fame, game, lame, same, tame
“Come, boy! Come!” calling out his name
And out of the mist his loyal dog came!
This all could have gone in a different direction:
Wonderful Willie called for his dog
Who had run off again chasing a hog
“Come, boy! Come!” calling out his name
Willie was tired of playing this game.
Your challenge: Try writing a poem in couplets. If rhymes don’t come right away, go through the alphabet and follow where the rhymes you find take you. Have fun!
Not all poems rhyme. If you want to write unrhymed poems—hey!—that’s just fine. Many, many, many of the very best poems have no rhyme at all. They are written in “free verse.”
I am going to spend a few blog entries writing about poetic forms that do use rhyme, though, because I find rhymes fun. Finding a rhyme also often leads to surprises both in what we say in our poems and in how we end up saying it.
Maybe the easiest rhymed poetic form to understand is the “couplet.” A couplet is made of two lines (a couple—2) that each end in the same sound. Check out “Halloween” by Annie from Buffalo, NY, on www.kidswrite4kids.com:
Little ghosties in the street,
Spider dogs beneath our feet.
Eerie noises fill the air,
Skeletons give us a scare.
Goblins, heroes, and big, black cats,
Creepy witches in pointy hats.
Candle lit pumpkins shed their light,
Trick-or-treaters fill the night
This poem is written in couplets. Here is how we would describe the form:
AA/BB/CC/DD and on through the alphabet from there as the poem goes on. All this means is that the first two lines (A and A) rhyme with each other, the third and fourth (B and B) rhyme with each other, and so on.
Little ghosties in the street (A),
Spider dogs beneath our feet (A).
Eerie noises fill the air (B),
Skeletons give us a scare (B).
Goblins, heroes, and big, black cats (C),
Creepy witches in pointy hats (C).
Candle lit pumpkins shed their light (D),
Trick-or-treaters fill the night (D)
Finding Rhymes
“Ah,” you say, “that’s just fine, but I can’t think of a rhyme right off the top of my head!”
I know what you mean. I can’t either. When I am writing a new poem, I struggle. My paper is covered in crossed out lines and scribbles. It’s a terrible mess.
The margins of my papers are also covered with lists. Lists? Yup. Lists of rhymes. Here’s what I do:
Let’s say that I just wrote a line that ends with the word “dog.” I want to find a rhyme for “dog.” Okay. I start at the beginning of the alphabet and write down every word I can think of that rhymes with “dog.” Like this—
Bog, cog, fog, gog, hog, log, nog, sog, tog. I can’t think of any others right now. Maybe you can.
Now I look at that line I just wrote.
Wonderful Willie called for his dog
Then, using one of the rhymed words I found, I try a next line.
He whistled and hollered into the fog
Okay. I didn’t know at first that there would be a dog lost in the fog in my poem. Finding the rhyme gave me that idea. Now I have to see what I can do with it.
“Come, boy! Come!” calling out his name
Name? What rhymes with “name”? Well, time to go through the alphabet again.
Blame, claim, came, dame, fame, game, lame, same, tame
“Come, boy! Come!” calling out his name
And out of the mist his loyal dog came!
This all could have gone in a different direction:
Wonderful Willie called for his dog
Who had run off again chasing a hog
“Come, boy! Come!” calling out his name
Willie was tired of playing this game.
Your challenge: Try writing a poem in couplets. If rhymes don’t come right away, go through the alphabet and follow where the rhymes you find take you. Have fun!
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Introduction: What IS a Poem, Anyway?
For the next couple of blog entries, I’ll be talking about poetry. So, what IS a poem, anyway?
Is it anything at all, as long as it is not written in our usual sentence or paragraph form?
Is this a poem?
For the next couple
Of blog entries
I will
Talk about poetry
It kind of LOOKS like a poem. I don’t think it is one, though. For one thing, all it does is give information about the next couple of blog entries. A poem does more than just give information.
Poems try to say something more important or interesting than that. They try to make you feel or think—or, better, feel and think.
Here’s a poem from my book Kerfuffle! It’s called “Temper Tantrum.”
You make me mad!
I’m one huge hurricane!
I’ll point my mean finger!
Don’t you do that again!
Watch out, Bub!
I’m the boss!
I’ll cut you off
And it’ll be YOUR loss!
Don’t you walk away!
How can I yell at you then?!
Hey, come back here!
Guess I shoulda counted to ten.
As you see how silly/crazy we can be when we are mad, I hope you laugh a little. I hope the poem makes you think about what happens when we lose out tempers, too.
Poems also have form. Some poetic forms are pretty strict, like the rhymes in “Temper Tantrum.” In the next couple of blog entries, I will write about some of these poetic forms. I hope you will try writing in them, too, and publishing on www.kidswrite4kids.com.
Just remember one thing as we start, though: The new ideas for poetic forms never end. You can make up your own—and I hope what I write will inspire you to do just that!
Is it anything at all, as long as it is not written in our usual sentence or paragraph form?
Is this a poem?
For the next couple
Of blog entries
I will
Talk about poetry
It kind of LOOKS like a poem. I don’t think it is one, though. For one thing, all it does is give information about the next couple of blog entries. A poem does more than just give information.
Poems try to say something more important or interesting than that. They try to make you feel or think—or, better, feel and think.
Here’s a poem from my book Kerfuffle! It’s called “Temper Tantrum.”
You make me mad!
I’m one huge hurricane!
I’ll point my mean finger!
Don’t you do that again!
Watch out, Bub!
I’m the boss!
I’ll cut you off
And it’ll be YOUR loss!
Don’t you walk away!
How can I yell at you then?!
Hey, come back here!
Guess I shoulda counted to ten.
As you see how silly/crazy we can be when we are mad, I hope you laugh a little. I hope the poem makes you think about what happens when we lose out tempers, too.
Poems also have form. Some poetic forms are pretty strict, like the rhymes in “Temper Tantrum.” In the next couple of blog entries, I will write about some of these poetic forms. I hope you will try writing in them, too, and publishing on www.kidswrite4kids.com.
Just remember one thing as we start, though: The new ideas for poetic forms never end. You can make up your own—and I hope what I write will inspire you to do just that!
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Coming Soon to the Writer’s Wing
The members of www.kidswrite4kids.com have recently submitted some wonderful poems and stories. Check out the most recent poems by Morgann and Jade-Alice, our two newest members. Both Morgann and Jade-Alice were in classes I taught last week, and Jade-Alice even named a poem after me and mentioned my book of poems! Keep it coming!! Don’t let the end of the school year slow you down.
In the next couple of weeks, I will be writing about poetry. Here is an outline of the blog entries I’ll be making:
Introduction: What IS a Poem, Anyway?
The Couplet and Finding Rhymes
The Quatrain
The Limerick
The Villanelle
The Haiku
I hope that you try writing in one or two (or all) of these forms. It is great fun to see what happens—what you end up saying—as you go looking for a rhyme or for just the right number of syllables.
As I get these entries together for you, keep writing! Also, of course, always keep reading. This might be a great time to reread some poems by your favorite authors.
In the next couple of weeks, I will be writing about poetry. Here is an outline of the blog entries I’ll be making:
Introduction: What IS a Poem, Anyway?
The Couplet and Finding Rhymes
The Quatrain
The Limerick
The Villanelle
The Haiku
I hope that you try writing in one or two (or all) of these forms. It is great fun to see what happens—what you end up saying—as you go looking for a rhyme or for just the right number of syllables.
As I get these entries together for you, keep writing! Also, of course, always keep reading. This might be a great time to reread some poems by your favorite authors.
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