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.