Zero to Hero, a Guide - 7. Poetry Prompt 5 – Rhymed Couplets

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Poetry Prompt 5 –

Let’s Write some Rhymed Couplets!

Rhymed Couplets can be thought of having a Jekyll and Hyde personality. As standalone, two-lined poems, they can offer short bursts of humor. Like this from Robert Frost:

Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee
And I'll forgive Your great big one on me.

Or, when rhymed Couplets are used in a series to tell a story, they can gain nobility of form. Witness how Alexander Pope translated Homer:

A band amid the joyous circle sings

High airs best tempered to the vocal strings;

While, warbling to the varied strain, advance

Two sprightly youths to form the bounding dance.

 

Now, let’s review in a little more detail. The first question to ask, is why use rhymes at all? There are a few different reasons; one is to enhance rhythm. We have studied the way in which a poet like Emily Dickinson used alternating rhythms of metre to accent her lines, and she could also choose to punctuate her meanings with rhyme if she wanted to. So that leads us to the second reason, emphasis. You can draw attention to the concept you are presenting in the poem by putting a literary exclamation point on it through matched rhymes in two consecutive lines. The third reason is for humor, for let's face it, the Couplet is difficult to do in English because it can come off sounding hokey. Shakespeare made fun of poor poets in As You Like It. The love-stricken Orlando nails heartfelt verse to the local trees in honor of Rosalind. When found, the jealous Touchstone makes up his own Couplets to knock the young lovers:

Sweetest nut from sourest rind,

Such a nut is Rosalind.

Early English poets loved the rhyming Couplet, as it was something foreign to ancient Latin and Greek poetry, and was thus something new. It first appeared in Italian or French lyric verse, and then became very popular, even though it far more challenging to rhyme in this language than in the Romance tongues. Nevertheless, some beautiful and powerful Couplets have come down to us through the ages. Many people know them by heart, like Helen Hunt Jackson's:

Bee to the blossom, moth to the flame;

Each to his passion, what's in a name?[1]

In her lines one can feel the power of the imagery, for although the same sentiments can be said in a simpler way, the poetics of how she presents the basic idea makes it unforgettable.

Another memorable example comes to us from John Dryden:

Great wits are sure to madness near allied,

and thin partitions do their bounds divide.

 

For more serious examples using a string of Rhymed Couplets, we don’t lack models. Look at this telling same-sex love poem from Christopher Marlowe:

It lies not in our power to love or hate,

For will in us is overruled by fate.

When two are stripped, long ere the course begin,

We wish that one should love, the other win;

 

And one especially do we affect

Of two gold ingots, like in each respect:

The reason no man knows; let it suffice

What we behold is censured by our eyes.

Where both deliberate, the love is slight:

Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?

Or this from Dryden again:

Happy the man, and happy he alone,

He, who can call today his own:

He who, secure within, can say,

Tomorrow do thy worst, for I’ve lived today.

So how can we build a complex piece in a more thoughtful mode using Couplets? By using the tools we have already learned about – that poetic lines are constructed considering syllable length (either plain or marched into a pattern of metre); that lyrical verse arises when the patterns are rhythmically matched (all lines are the same length) or alternated (lines follow a back and forth use of two different lengths); and that form is there to offer freedom of expression. Any poetical form takes time to master, but once mastery is gained, you can do anything you want with it.

Here is an example of what I mean. A couple of years ago I wanted to provide a translation for a particular piece of music in one of my stories. Although the original German lyrics make use of a single rhyme throughout, I knew that in English that would sound forced and bizarre. Answer? Couplets! Here is the result. You can find the music here; open it in a separate window and listen along as you read the lyrics. My aim was not to provide a slavish reiteration of the original words, but to create a beautiful performance poem that can both carry the meaning of the poet and the weight of the music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6Fr3I4fUAo

Sleeping softly, or so it seems,

Heaven enters us in our dreams;

Angels hover round about,

Showing they comfort doubt;

Two are singing sweetly,

Two with blossoms neatly

Spread a bed of roses,

And there my heart reposes,

For heaven will not forsake

We who at dawn must awake.

Some Notes on Rhymes

Perhaps the compiler of the first modern rhyming dictionary said it best:

“Rhyming must always give

The effect of unobtrusive naturalness.”

Clement Wood

He was speaking of serious poems, and in fact there are two kinds of rhymes to keep in mind. The Unobtrusive, to carry the poetic intent forward barely above the reader’s notice, and the Clever. Clever Rhymes are those which give the reader pause, either because of amusement or head-shaking acknowledgement of their corniness. The best Clever Rhymes add greatly to any comedic song or poem.

To become a master of the Unobtrusive Rhyme takes practice. The more you write, the more you will discover how difficult they are to achieve. There is a Shakespearean balance demanded of naturalness and art, which hand in hand can make the best poems ‘perfect.’ It is difficult to talk about this skill in a practical do- this/don’t-do-that manner, for we all must roll up our sleeves and dig in. Making our own mistakes in the learning process is what’s important. I know of no shortcut to gaining perspective on the best rhyming technique, other than to equate it to a person’s taste level. You must seek out and find your own.

For inspiration, the English language has hardly ever produced ‘perfection’ to beat that of Longfellow’s. On all fronts – concept, artistic delivery, metre, rhyme – few have written at such a successful level. Read the following excerpt from his poem The Day is Done and feel how the rhymes contribute without distracting.

I see the lights of the village

Gleam through the rain and the mist,

And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me

That my soul cannot resist:

 

A feeling of sadness and longing,

That is not akin to pain,

And resembles sorrow only

As the mist resembles the rain.

 

Come, read to me some poem,

Some simple and heartfelt lay,

That shall soothe this restless feeling,

And banish the thoughts of day.

 

Not from the grand old masters,

Not from the bards sublime,

Whose distant footsteps echo

Through the corridors of Time.

 

Read from some humbler poet,

Whose songs gushed from his heart,

As showers from the clouds of summer,

Or tears from the eyelids start;

 

Then read from the treasured volume

The poem of thy choice,

And lend to the rhyme of the poet

The beauty of thy voice.

When it comes to Clever Rhymes, there are no shortages of near-genius examples to look at. I myself am particularly proud of a one I crafted for the Tony Sonnets, namely joining ‘want’ with ‘Hellespont’ in a poem discussing the Hero and Leander myth. As this little example shows, with Clever Rhymes, you are more at liberty to mix up word lengths for amusing effect. A subset of this type is the Double Rhyme, where one word (which is usually presented first for clarity’s sake) is rhymed with two or more words. Clement Wood calls the following example a “celebrated couplet”:

O ye lords of ladies intellectual

Inform us truly, have they not henpecked you all?

Byron

Yes, I’m sure a part of you is going “That’s awful.” It is, but it works because that is the poet’s intention. No one could create something like this by mistake, as the metre for lecT-u-al and peckT-you-all is what’s known as a perfect rhyme (meaning, not only do the syllable counts match, but so do the natural stresses).

Rhyming Tools for the Poet

– Easy Rhymes:

Like all languages, English has its suite of ‘easy rhymes.’ The first to come to mind is: me, be, see, free, flea, glee, etc. There is nothing wrong with using this rhyme in a piece, but once you have, avoid using it again in the same poem. Overuse of any rhyme will distract the reader and make them think you did not search for more advanced examples to use.

On the other hand, be aware of – and on the lookout for – words that have many rhyme possibilities. This will be useful for some forms that require a lot of them; Ballades for example require a whopping 14 rhymes on the same word! In such cases, you have to go for the easy rhymes, but they won’t diminish the quality of your poem.

– Words to Avoid:

Save yourself headaches, and do not let a sentence end in one of the few words for which there is no (or only a few) rhymes in English. Avoid:

- month

- orange

- love (there’s only dove, glove, above, and of)

- self (there’s only pelf, your-him-her self)

- us (not unless you’re taking the ‘bus’ somewhere)

- for a scholarly list, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_without_rhymes

– Rhyming Dictionaries:

My own copy of Clement Wood’s seminal work is crack-spined and worn thin where I fan the pages with my thumb. Do you need to invest in a rhyming dictionary when a few exist online? I’d say, yes. There is more to learn than webpages can impart, namely, how rhyming words are grouped by syllable count and natural stresses. These are critical to know for you to be able to make rhymes on your own, when you have access to neither electronic or book versions of a rhyming dictionary.

That being said, for online use, I prefer RhymeZone. But do not trust everything you read there, for a small proportion of the ‘rhymes’ work only with the thickest accents in place; caveat emptor and make sure you pronounce the word as it is listed. This goes for word-stresses too: think how differently words like laboratory, garage and vitamin are pronounced by English speakers around the world. When you rhyme, make it natural for the way you speak.

Specifically with RhymeZone, always use the “Advanced” feature, and turn on the “Rare Word” option, and turn off the “Near Rhyme” option.

– Notation:

I use two sets of tick notations to track Rhymes and Metre when I write. Using them yourself will help you develop a critical eye for accuracy.

After you have written the opening line of a poem, assess the syllable count and note with roman numerals. If wanting a Rhyme, mark it with a lowercase letter. Like this; first line:

I like peaches

Note as:

iv a I like peaches

Then continue:

vi b Only in summertime.

The whole stanza would look like this:

iv a I like peaches

vi b Only in summertime,

iv a On the beaches

vi b Of a warm Southern clime.

 

If a particular line has a syllable count that I want to reconsider in later editing, because it is one or two beats under or over, I show it in parentheses, like this:

(vii) b Of a torpid Southern clime.

And if the word “time” were to be repeated like a refrain in the last line, I would note it:

vi b(r) Of a warm evening time.

Notations like these are helpful while you are writing a poem so you can track or repeat the pattern you want, or edit later with the big picture in mind. Another way to utilize them is if you are setting out a well-defined poetical form. So, for example, if you are writing an Elegy, first write down the stanza pattern you are to follow, namely:

viii a

viii b

viii b

viii a

 

viii c

viii d

viii d

viii c

 

etc.

The Prompt: write both kinds of rhymed Couplets.

- First, create a fully contained poem in two and only two lines. Make it on the theme of “spring has sprung,” and feel free to make your Couplet humorous or serious. - Second, write at least one poem made of 10 or more lines of rhymed Couplets. I will give the summary of a folktale below, and you pick out segments of the story to create your poem(s). For now, don’t think of writing the whole legend, but let your spirit be drawn to certain scenes and write about those. You will always have time to come back later and fill in segments if you want.

Griselda: Gualtiero, the young king of Sicily, goes out on a hunt and meets a commoner; a beautiful shepherdess named Griselda. They fall in love. Though opposed by the nobles, the king marries the one he loves and elevates her to queen. Treachery abounds in court, and ill-advised war shortens the people’s tempers. They want change, and the nobles convince them Griselda is ‘jinxed’ and the root of their problems. When she becomes pregnant, the pressure on her to bear a son is great, but a daughter named Constanza is born. Now the king hears of a plot to kill mother and daughter, so he acts. He takes the baby and gives it to a wet nurse to raise in secret, saying Constanza had died in her sleep. In private, he asks Griselda for reassurances that she still loves and trusts him. She says he’s the only love of her life, and will do as he thinks best. Then the king stages a humiliating public spectacle where he asks from the palace balcony if the people want him to stay married to Griselda. The mob shouts no, so he pretends to bow to their will, abandoning her to the safety of her father. Eighteen years later, the scene is repeated. Now the crowd is assembled to witness the king finally take a new bride. The young girl is there, and Griselda is once more summoned before the people. The king asks her if she is ready to grant him divorce, and she repeats she’s only ever loved Gualtiero. If he wants to marry another, it’s best he kill her on the spot, for her faithfulness to him will not change. The crowd now relents, and Gualtiero tells them he has never remarried because he has never loved anyone but Griselda too. As the people cheer, the king introduces the true identity of the girl on the balcony with them: it is Constanza, the king’s heir, and the daughter of Gualtiero and Griselda from all those years ago.

Feel free to relate the Griselda legend to our times, and to any currently pregnant, common-born royal princess you can think of  

As final inspiration, look at “Hymn” written by Edgar Allan Poe:

At morn – at noon – at twilight dim –

Maria! thou hast heard my hymn!

In joy and woe – in good and ill –

Mother of God, be with me still!

When the hours flew brightly by,

And not a cloud obscured the sky,

My soul, lest it should truant be,

Thy grace did guide to thine and thee;

Now, when storms of Fate o’ercast

Darkly my Present and my Past,

Let my Future radiant shine

With sweet hopes of thee and thine!

Self-Review: Now that you have written several Rhymed Couplets, I ask you to perform a self-check against the following set of questions. If you answer ‘Yes’ to one or more of them, and this leads to feelings of dissatisfaction with your results, turn to the appendix List of Random Prompt Ideas and choose one to try the Rhymed Couplets challenge again. Check this list of questions with your second attempt and whittle those ‘Yes’s down to a comfortable level before going on to the next prompt challenge.

Ask yourself DID I:

- Fail to create suitable rhymes, either Unobtrusive or Clever, based on the types of Couplets I’ve written?

- Fail to make my line lengths consistent, either the same number of syllables, or alternating lengths in a regular pattern like Lyrics?

- Treat Metre in a manner that leaves me dissatisfied?

- Fail to construct scenes from Griselda that can connect with the reader on an emotional level?

- Fail to make my linked Couplets flow smoothly one into the next?

- Resort to repeating easy rhymes too often?

- Use Near Rhymes to the point of being noticed by the reader?

Remember, this course is designed to build knowledge and confidence step by step, so please feel comfortable with Rhymed Couplets before you proceed.