Appendix B: Formats & Rhymes
Rhyme = Correspondence of sound between words or the endings of words, especially when these are used at the ends of verse lines in poems.
Rhythm (or Metrum) = A returning pattern of long, short, stressed, and unstressed syllables in a text.
Rhyme scheme = the pattern of end rhymes in a stanza, with each rhyme encoded by a letter of the alphabet. Example: ABBA BCCB.
Format vs Content
Format and Content are two different dimensions of the same idea.
The message of a slogan or a dialogue is Content. "bla BLA bla bla BLA bla bla BLA bla." is the Format of the first line of a Limerick, without Content.
Rhythm and Rhyme need a matching combination of Format and Content. When Rhythm and Rhyme dance together, they create music, songs, art and beauty, dance and laughter, love and romance, emotions that no other format of text is capable of. That makes poetry such a delight to write, as you can work on it from two sides at the same time; when you hear the music and feel the emotion while you understand the message, you know it's okay.
Captains of Industry are white, male, tall, confident, and wear expensive suits. Witches are old, female, wrinkled, ugly, unreliable and dress in rags. I know a tall, white, confident male who poisoned the world with his racist ideas after election day, and I know an old, wrinkled female who received the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize for her outstanding work in the slums of Calcutta. Both people prove that Content might make a difference, while Format (image) is just presentation. We don't care if the one who helps us is a man or a woman, gay or straight, black or white or green, dressed in pink underwear or in a white T-shirt; it's the help that matters. We love others for what they do, not for what they look like.
Format (outside) and Content (character) are two different things. We learn to look-and-judge in split seconds, as we have no time to learn all the unique elements of our modern times. Format, image, gets all the attention, while Content loses the battle.
Art is different. «Guernica» is an idea. Its Content is: «remember the horror that human stupidity did to the village Guernica and its inhabitants on the 26th of April 1937, and learn from it so it won't happen again.» The Format is a painting in black and white by Pablo Picasso. The Format of «Goodbye Saigon», by Billy Joel, is a song, with words, but also with a video, images. Its Content is: «remember the horror that human stupidity did to the country Vietnam and its inhabitants between the 1st of November 1955 and the 30th of April 1975, and learn from it so it won't happen again.» Both are works of art; they had a tremendous impact after their nativity, and still impress thousands of people every new day. Would that impact be the same if singer Billy Joel would have painted the war, or if painter Picasso would have sung about it? In art, Format and Content are like Yin and Yang: each half is nothing without the other.
In art, Format and Content are like husband and wife: if they love each other, 1 + 1 = 3, but if they don't communicate, the entire relationship is pointless. An example will clarify this:
Look at that book.
It's thick as a brick.
The work of a dork.
It makes me feel sick.
The rhythm is perfect, it has end rhyme, inner rhyme (look - book), alliteration (makes - me), repetition (2x It) and several other stylistic devices. Beautiful and artistic, from a Format point of view, but… What is it about? Is it a warning from the writer to read only thin books? Is reading bad for our health? Are writers of tomes disguised witches who poison the world with their magic spells? Will anyone remember this poem in the year 2525?
Sometimes, an image (Format) says more than a thousand words (Content), and sometimes that same image benefits from a few words to explain the idea behind it.
Writing starts with having something to say, with Content, with an idea. How to say it, the Format, should help to clarify that idea, to give it more impact and to reach more people. With a list of formats and rhyme-forms, nobody will become a better poet, but with an overview of different ways to present ideas, a talented poet might improve hor communication.
Formats
When a poem has a defined rhyme scheme, a defined length, a number of lines and/or syllables, and/or a certain rhythm, we give this format a name. We illustrated each format with an example from this bundle.
Epigram (or Aphorism)
"What is an Epigram? A dwarfish whole,
Its body brevity, and wit its soul."
— Samuel Taylor Coleridge («Epigram», 1809)
7.7 - «The Editor».
Free Expression
No rhyme or rhythm, no structure, just word choice and expression, make the Free Expression poem both easy to write and extremely difficult.
3.6 - «End of an Epic Era».
When there's no rhyme but the poem does have an iambic pentameter (like many of Shakespeare's plays), we call it Blank Verse.
Haiku
The Haiku is a Japanese art form. It's three lines with five, seven and five syllables. The topic is often nature or one of the four seasons.
7.6 - «Final Word».
Limerick
The tradition of the Limerick lies in Ireland (they even named an entire town after this poetic format). Irish people like a merry laugh. Characteristics of Limericks are humour, word play and an easy-to-remember word choice. The poem has five lines, rhyme scheme AABBA; the A-lines have three accents (with two not accented syllables between them), while the B-lines are shorter and have only two accents.
4.2 - «Obvious».
Ode
An ode is a lyrical poem, usually written to praise a certain person. Classical Odes were meant to be sung. There are no restrictions to metrum or rhyme.
6.1 - «Classic's Class» is an ode to several poets.
A witness of whiteness proved: brightness is black.
When Colin was calling, the world called him back.
We all take a knee
To show we agree.
We'll caper them nicks in their nerves till they crack.
Rap
Rap comes from the US black culture. The rapper recites the words with powerful rhythmic accents. Raps often combine with music, but the words are spoken and not sung. The lyrics often critique society or describe social behaviour and personality.
4.5 - «Eight 9-inch nails and a hammer».
Rock Ballad
Songs, lyrics, are poetry. The supporting melody requires rhythm and metrum in the text. The lines usually rhyme. Schemes ABAB, ABCB and AABB are most popular (ABBA was a hit in the 1970s and 1980s).
Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for his poetry on music.
1.2 - «Letter to Tracy».
Saint Nicholas Rhyme:
A low-quality AABB-schemed writing of which every first line holds an idea and the second line just exists of empty words that rhyme on the first one.
Saint Nicholas Rhymes deserve more respect. There's hardly anything you can do wrong here, which makes it the perfect format for starting writers and for people who want to tell others that roses are red, violets are blue, and saying nice words is a good thing too.
1.5 - «Money».
Sonnet
A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem, divided in sections of 4, 4 and 6 (or 2 times 3) lines. The metrical pattern is often the iambic pentameter, which means that each line contains five sets of two beats, the first unstressed and the second stressed: da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM.
The Shakespearean sonnet (also known as the English sonnet or Elizabethan sonnet) follows a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEFGG.
The Petrarchan sonnet (or Italian sonnet) follows a rhyme scheme of ABBA ABBA CDCDCD (the last six lines often change their rhyming pattern, depending on the writer).
The Spenserian sonnets follow a rhyme scheme of ABAB BCBC CDCDEE.
The Miltonic sonnets follow a rhyme scheme of ABBA ABBA CDECDE.
2.6 - «Hell's Bells».
3.5 - «Don't Look for Excuses; Look for Solutions».
Rhyme
Rhymes are classified by the degree of similarity between sounds within words, and by their placement within the lines or stanzas.
End rhyme, the most common type, is the rhyming of the sounds of the final syllables of a line.
5.6 - «road» and «load» rhyme.
Sounds. That means words aren't necessarily written with the same letters in the end.
5.6 - «war» and «floor» and «score» rhyme.
Rhymed words conventionally share all sounds following the word’s last stressed syllable.
4.1 - «office» and «tough is» rhyme.
3.1 - «delete» and «compete» rhyme.
1.4 - «Sacrifice» and «Paradise» don't rhyme.
Alliteration applies to the same letter(s) or sounds at the beginning of words. Those words either follow each other or are in close connection with each other.
3.6 - «fantastic fiction»
4.3 - «I'm down in a dungeon»
Assonance is the effect of the same vowels (but not the same consonants) on stressed syllables.
3.6 - «A river of ink», «wasted paper»
5.2 - «My doubts drive like white wine»
Assonance is also the same consonants (but not vowels) in two or more words.
3.6 - «ruined remainders».
Chain rhyme is when the last word of a sentence rhymes with the first word of the next sentence. We also call it Chain rhyme when the last word of a line returns at the beginning of the next sentence, or when an entire line repeats.
5.4 - «In the Woods lived an elf,
By herself, all alone.»
4.1 - «Conflict» shows an original variation of Chain rhyme: «It's lunchtime in the office / But it isn't time for lunch»
Eye rhyme rhymes only on sight, not when pronounced.
5.6 - «blow» - «show» - «low» - «now»
Feminine rhyme applies to the rhyming of one or more unstressed syllables.
1.4 - «Glory» and «Story»
Half rhyme (a.k.a. imperfect rhyme, near rhyme or slant rhyme) is the rhyming of the ending consonant sounds, but not the vowels.
3.4 - «eight» and «thought»
Identical rhyme employs the same word, identically in sound and in sense, twice in rhyming positions.
In 1.1, the first line of every two-line group ends with the word «poetry».
Internal rhyme is rhyme within a single line of verse, or when a word from the middle of a line rhymes with a word at the end of the line.
1.7 - «It is dear, fear and near»
A Knitted Verse is a text that rhymes (or almost rhymes) with no attempt to rhythm. It's used often for commercial reasons, to draw the attention.
«For the fastest motorbike - You stop at the shop of Hurricane Mike»
1.5 - «Money»
Masculine rhyme describes those rhymes ending in a stressed syllable. It's the most common type of rhyme in English poetry.
1.4 - «Bush» and «Push»
Monorhyme is the use of only one rhyme in a stanza.
3.3 - «I was looking for a poem
To be pasted on my wall.
I looked throughout my emails
And messages I recall.» etc.
A Prancing Pony is a hiccough in rhythm, a line that doesn't run smoothly when you read it aloud.
In 3.1, the rhythm is «off ON off off ON off off ON off off ON», like a galloping pony. In the lines:
«The format to show-and-not-tell should be clear
Or there is no reason to go on, my dear.»,
the third accent in the second line should be on «on», while the rhythm forces it on «go».
Other examples of Prancing Ponies are 3.7 "Should I keep up appearance[s with] perfection I fake?", having one syllable too many, and 5.2 "Tiktok is the fashion", which puts the stress on tok, while the natural accent is on tik.
A Prancing Pony is a shortcoming, annoying for readers. We, the writers, honestly admit our imperfection, and invite everyone to do a better job.
Can we, please, call off all this baloney
About rhythm and rhyme? It's so phoney.
Take some paper and write.
Pony up for the fight.
Mount a hackney and ride the thrill zone.
