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Acrostic

BONUS: What other poetry form do you note in this one?

X

Example:

Little maidens, when you look On this little story-book, Reading with attentive eye Its enticing history, Never think that hours of play Are your only HOLIDAY. And that in a HOUSE of joy Lessons serve but to annoy: If in any HOUSE you find Children of a gentle mind, Each the others pleasing ever. Each the others vexing never— Daily work and pastime daily In their order taking gaily— Then be very sure that they Have a life of HOLIDAY. — Lewis Carroll

rhyming couplets

In this form, the first letters from each line spell a word. (In the example poem, they spell three words: Lorina, Alice, and Edith. The author of Alice in Wonderland wrote the poem for three sisters he knew.) Can you write an acrostic using your own name or the name of a friend?

Haiku

Acrostic

Rhyming Couplet

Are you a poet? Even if not, grab apencil and try some of these short forms.  My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. — Psalm 45:1

Matsuo Bashō

autumn moonlight—   a worm digs silently    into the chestnut— Matsuo Bashō

Haiku (pronounced hi-KOO)

Poets often use this short, Japanese poem to  describe nature. They use no more than 17 syllables: No more than five for the first line. No more than seven for the second. No more than five for the third.

“Wait!” you say. “Eye” doesn’t rhyme with “symmetry.” How is that a couplet? Tricky William Blake just introduced you to “slant rhyme.” Poets often use slant rhyme to keep their work from sounding “sing-songy.” Slant rhyme almost rhymes. It gets your attention with a little surprise. It makes your ears perk up.

Rhyming Couplet

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,  In the forests of the night;  What immortal hand or eye,  Could frame thy fearful symmetry? 

“Couple,” of course, means “two together.” Some poets write just two rhyming, clever lines (a couplet)—and that’s the whole poem. Others string many couplets together to form a longer poem. You don’t have to count syllables. But read your couplet aloud to make sure the lines sound musical together. This is called “scanning” the meter of your poem. Meter is the rhythm.