To celebrate the upcoming Meddling with Poetry course, I'm sharing 16 delicious forms of poetry I've discovered, each of them a delight to play with.
Instead of rhyming the words at the end of the line, each end-word has a rhyme somewhere in the next line. That’s it! You can combine this with any other form of poetry as well – wreathed sonnets, wreathed golden shovels, wreathed anything really. If this is your first wreathed poem, then try it out on its own first, before combining it, or if you're combining it with another form, pick one you already know well.
In this example, the end-words rhyme as well (a b a b a b a b a b), but they don't have to. I've marked the end-words and their matching rhyme in the next line in bold colours.
The balsam bobs. The narrowboat’s paint flakes.
Blackberries glisten, where bramble snakes its way
through the hawthorn, and pray for lips. A breeze rakes
the trees’ reflections; breaking through leaves, a ray
wobbles on ripples. A spider’s ballet makes
geometry of sun and waits for prey.
The hops and hay ripen while the lakes
give up their geese. It takes its time, decay:
while leaves fray, twigs brittle, and wasps hold wakes
by drizzlelight, mud cakes the memories of May.
I've used some half-rhyme in this (makes / waits, rakes / break) and also, because the rhyming word is in the middle of a line, you don't have to rhyme the whole word, just the heavy-syllable bit (rakes / breaking).
Try it out with some free verse, enjoy the freedom it brings to rhyming, and have fun!
The Meddling with Poetry course explores a host of different poetry forms, as well as the musicality of language, poetic imagery, and other aspects of the poetic. Absolute beginners and experienced writers are equally welcome. You can read more details and book a place here.
