How to write poetry that rhymes
How to write poetry that rhymes
Writing rhyming poetry can sometimes be difficult but with a few easy steps you can be writing poetry that rhymes with easy. These tips will help you make poetry that rhymes and it will be fun and easy.
Subject Matter
First of all you need a subject to write a poem about. The subject matter for your poem could be anything that you want. If you are writing rhyming poetry for your boyfriend or if you are writing rhyming poetry for your girlfriend then you will be focusing your words on them. This poem could be a love poem or just a cute little poem to say you are thinking about them. For my example I am writing a rhyming poem about cats (it goes with my avatar and they are cute, don’t you think?)
With your subject fresh in your mind you will have to do a little research to make your rhyming poem full of meaning. If you are writing a poem about your boyfriend then you will need to think off all the things that make him special. These are the ideas that you will try to write about in your rhyming poem. If you are writing about a cat it will be easy for you if you have owned one, so try to pick a subject that moves you and that you have experience with and your poem should be great!
Let’s Start!
Hold on, slow down there! We can’t just start writing lines and hope that a poem floods out from your pen! You could start like this but your rhyming poem might not make sense and it will be easy for you to go off on a tangent (go down the wrong path, on writing your rhyming poem).
You should consider what style of poem that you want to write. Your rhyming poem could have each line rhyme with the last or you could write your poem so that every second line rhymes. In my example I am going to have every second line of my poem rhyme as I think this is one of the easier poem styles to write.
Now Start!
Okay now that you have spent some time thinking about your poems subject matter and you are comfortable with the poetry style you have chosen it is time to start being creative and it’s time to write your rhyming poem.
Don’t worry if you can’t start the poem, you should jot down a line and see how you like it. Starting a poem can be one of the hardest things to do, if you make a start with any line you can always come back and fix it once your creative talents start to flow.
In my example I will start with a different version of, “The cat sat on the mat”
Remember that the beauty with a poem where every second line is a rhyming line is that my first line does not have to rhyme with any of the lines. Please remember thought that this line should be part of the story and should set up the second line or be part of the second line, like a broken sentence.
So here is my first line:
She paused at the centre of the room,
And now with my second line:
Stretched and arched her back,
Now this is where you have to start thinking of rhyming words for, “back” which will be on the forth line of your poem. If you are finding it difficult to find a word that rhymes with, “back” (or your word at the end of this line) then you can either use the help with an Online rhyming dictionary or change the whole line completely to suit your rhyming ability. Also you could just change the one word itself. For example my second line could have read, “Stretched and arched her body”. By changing words or lines you it gives you more options to make your poem rhyme.
So on with my poem:
She paused at the centre of the room,
Stretched and arched her back,
She gave me a knowing glare,
And sat up like a potato sack.
This is my first stanza; remember a stanza is like a poems paragraph. If you don’t like the message in the poem because of the rhyming words than you should have a go at changing them. For example:
She paused at the centre of the room,
Stretched and arched her back,
She gave me a knowing glare,
She wasn’t taking any of my flack.
I think I like the second attempt, so now I’ll continue with my poem:
Now that she has my attention,
And the world at her control,
She meow’s at me profusely,
And demands I put food in her bowl.
I’ll finish this poem on the third stanza, but when you are writing your poem you can make it as long as you want. You might find that the ideas and words are flowing out and you can’t stop writing your rhyming poem. I generally try to make my poems a long as I think I have portrayed my message or have I have finished my poem with a final twist which makes the reader, laugh or think about the words in the poem again.
So from the start again here is the whole poem:
She paused at the centre of the room,
Stretched and arched her back,
She gave me a knowing glare,
She wasn’t taking any of my flack.
---
Now that she has my attention,
With the world at her control,
She meow’s at me profusely,
And demands I put food in her bowl.
---
She’s interrupted my writing,
And driving me out of my wits,
My thrown cushion misses her,
And smashed my rare vase to bits.
Sometimes you’ll have to rewrite your rhyming lines to get your poem and message to work. This is all part of the creative process and as long as you are enjoying yourself and you are happy with the end result than all I can say is well done and keep up the good work!
