Good times to write in rhymes

Steady rhyme and rhythm with no variations usually produce boringly predictably poems with a sing-song beat and end-line ping that sometimes prejudice readers (and other poets!) against rhyming poems of any kind. Nevertheless, rhymes have been popular for many, many centuries, and their echoing sounds continue to expand our options as poets, writers, readers, and people ready to learn.

Repetitive sounds help readers to remember the poems they like. Strong rhymes and a lively beat also help people of all ages to learn, relearn, or retrieve information. Therefore, poems with rhythmic rhymes can be very useful in helping children to learn new information or helping elderly patients and stroke victims to retrieve information and recover memories.

Effective rhymes emphasize thoughts and feelings. If rhymes happen to be key words at the end of the lines, the emphasis increases – again, making a poem easier to recall.

Sometimes poems with regular rhymes and rhythm readily sing their way into song lyrics and hymn ballads.

Poets with a strong sense of musicality – and poets who fret over where to break a line in free verse – may find traditional forms useful to study and liberating to write.

Poets who enjoy writing humorous poetry can often bump up humor with the drum roll of a strong beat and sound of true rhymes. If those rhyming words have three or more syllables, so much the funnier.

Amusing or not, end-line rhymes work best when active verbs and strong nouns add sense to each sentence.

Conversely, end-line rhymes usually do not work well when they consist of abstract concepts or weak words that cannot be pictured such as love/of/above.

End-line rhymes can become problematic, too, when they hinder creativity or the flow of ideas, locking a poet into rhyming words that torture syntax (sentence structure) or thwarting poets from developing their unique voice.

If you like to write in true rhymes but don’t like end-line jingles, enjambment will often soften the sound as you wrap a sentence around one line onto the next.

To vary sound echoes, slant rhyme and alliteration provide interesting substitutes for true rhymes.

For more help with rhymes, see these articles on The Poetry Editor blog:

• Rhyme, rhythm, and reality: traditional English verse
• Unlocking clockwork rhyme



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© 2011, Mary Harwell Sayler, all rights reserved. Please do not use the above without permission.

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Sonnets traditionally require poets to use rhythmic rhymes and argue nicely in fourteen lines

Poets who prefer writing with rhyme and rhythm do well to get acquainted with traditional forms of English poetry. Why? Traditional verse forms, such as the villanelle discussed last time or the sonnet this time, have been popular since their appearance many years before Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1450.

If you’re inclined to write poetry of 20 lines or less with strong rhymes and solid rhythmic beat, consider revising those poems with the sonnet in mind. If you’re inclined to write poems with strong opinions and solid arguments, that’s even better!

So, what do you need to do to shape a poem into a sonnet?

Even up the meter. Although other types of meter can certainly be used, let’s stick with the old standby – iambic pentameter. As discussed in the previous article “Scan a poem. Catch the beat,” iambic pentameter means each line has five feet, most of which are iambs. And, as previously discussed in the same article and in “Poetry forms help re-form a poem as you revise,” an iamb is a foot of meter consisting of two syllables that end on an upbeat note.

Occasionally, a poem might have an extra syllable or two to allow variation without losing the beat, but generally a line of iambic pentameter has 10 syllables per line with the even numbers accentuated the majority of the time.

Confine your sonnet to 14 lines.

Follow a rhyme pattern of your choice. An “a” marks the first rhyme, “b” the second, and so on with the most long-lived patterns being Italian (Petrarchan), Spenserian, and Shakespearean. Each of those forms has its own rhyme scheme as follows:

Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet – The first eight lines (octave) have a rhyming pattern of a b b a a b b a, while the last six lines (sextet) offer rhyme options such as c d c d c d or c d e c d e.

Spenserian Sonnet – Edmund Spencer, author of The Faerie Queen, invented the pattern of a b a b b c b c c d c d e e.

Shakespearean Sonnet – William Shakespeare experimented with the use of three quatrains (verses of four lines each) in his sonnets, which closed on a couplet (two rhyming lines.) That rhyme scheme usually followed this pattern:

a b a b
c d c d
e f e f
g g

The couplet at the end of a Shakespearean sonnet can nicely close a debate or open the ending of the poem into a new way of thinking. An Italian sonnet, however, might state a case in the octave and present the other side in the last six lines. So, while a villanelle works well when you want to emphasize and repeat a particular thought or obsession, the sonnet works great when you present an unusual viewpoint, express an opinion, make a case, or just feel like arguing!

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© 2011, Mary Harwell Sayler
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Villanelles need something worth repeating

Do you find yourself saying the same thing, over and over? Great! Try a villanelle.

Start by writing a sentence stating a strong opinion, belief, warning, or lament.

Say, for example, you wonder if it’s always right or wise for victors in war to redesign a culture. Can an outsider really know what will work best for a people with a different geographical landscape, different natural resources, or different traditions? I had those thoughts as I tried to convey my father’s questions and war experiences in a series of poems, which brought to mind these two lines: “We come along and tell them what to do/ but who knows what is right for them or true?”

Shape your two key lines or sentences into iambic pentameter.

As discussed in a previous article, “Scan a poem. Catch the beat,” an iamb is a two-syllable foot with the accent on the second syllable, and pentameter (penta meaning five) is a line of poetry whose meter (measurement) consists of five feet.

For example, the first line to be repeated in my villanelle has five straight iambs, while the rhyming line has four iambs with a spondee (two-syllable foot with both syllables stressed) to give a little variation without losing either the pentameter length of the line or the iambic beat:

we COME/ aLONG/ and TELL/ them WHAT/ to DO

but WHO/ KNOWS WHAT/ is RIGHT/ for THEM/ or TRUE?


Follow the traditional pattern of a villanelle.

This form of traditional poetry consists of 19 lines with five stanzas of three lines each and a quatrain (four lines) at the end.

After placing the lines you will repeat in the first and third lines of your first verse, you then alternate those lines throughout the poem, bringing them together at the end to close the poem. As you might imagine, though, this could get boring! So the catch is to have a slight variation, say, in the connotations of your key rhymes, as the poem builds momentum and deepens its meaning.

Use easy-to-rhyme rhymes.

Another trick to writing a successful villanelle comes in finding words that readily rhyme but contribute to the meaning of the poem. Since you only have two rhyming sounds for the whole poem, give plenty of thought (and ear!) to rhyme A for the two key lines you repeat. Also, you need new words with an A rhyme for the first line of every verse.

Consider, too, the sounds and meanings available in rhyme B since that sound will resound from the second line of every verse. For example, rhyme A in my villanelle echoes do/ true and rhyme B way/say, both of which offered many rhyming words I could choose from as the poem proceeded.


Trying to Get the Story Straight
by Mary Harwell Sayler

We come along and tell them what to do
and pay their workers in a different way,
but who knows what is right for them or true?

Demands made on the rich are rare and few,
but the poor have little choice in what we say
when we come along and tell them what to do

about living their own lives, but tell me. Who
can speak for another or even know how to pray
for what’s best for them – or right or true?

With food scarce, black market prices are too
high for anyone but the very rich to pay
unless we come along and tell them what to do

with their own money, capping costs, so you
and I can afford things too, if we have our say,
but who knows what is right for them or true?

Workmen stand around like there’s nothing to do!
And standing in rubble, they laze the day away
until we come along and tell them what to do,
but who knows what is right for us – or true?


(c) 2012, Mary Harwell Sayler
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Unlocking clockwork rhyme

If you noticed the lock/ clock rhyme tucked into the title, you discovered a subtle option for poets who want to tone down the sound of end-line rhyming pairs:

Slide rhymes into unexpected places.

Traditional metered poetry in English seldom uses that option, preferring instead true rhymes placed in the end-line position, which empathetically ends a line as predictably and regularly, yeah, as clockwork.

There’s nothing wrong with that. However, it helps to have a reason. For instance, you might want to stay in line with a previously cut pattern of verse, such as the sonnet or villanelle. Or, you might want to emphasize something strongly, knowing full well that end-line rhymes offer full impact.

Heavy repetition of sound can seldom be ignored. If you want to turn up the volume, active verbs or strong nouns give you the strongest emphasis with the heft to carry the weight of your thoughts and rhyming stress. Conversely, the use of weak words such as of/ above, when/ then, or me/ the does not help a thought, sound, or picture.

Scattering rhymes within the lines provides one possibility for toning it down. Another is to use slant rhyme or off rhyme instead of true rhyming pairs. Generally, this involves a slight change in one word to make a similar, corresponding sound echo, such as occurs in summer/ simmer.

If thinking of off rhymes gives you a headache, aim for assonance or consonance.

To define:

Assonance – Repeats vowel sounds to create a mood or poetic alternative to rhyme. For an example of the moodiness that often echoes in an “o” sound: “Only a forlorn loon broke the silence on our pond.”

Consonance – Repeats consonants and adds a stronger sound echo than assonance. For an example of repetition sizzling with “s” and “m” sounds then flaring into the roar of “r”: “Summer simmered in smoldering fires.”

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© 2011, Mary Harwell Sayler, all rights reserved

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