Here's a question for you (plus, I firmly believe this little corner needs to grow):
How do you feel about making your poems rhyme? Do they all rhyme? Do none of them rhyme? If they do rhyme, how do you come up with the right words?

Not many of my poems rhyme, but some of them do. It's never a conscious decision of: 'I'm going to make this poem rhyme'. It's just, lines start coming, and they rhyme. once I've got the beginning of a rhyming poem, I can usually find the words just in my head (often by running through the alphabet in my head) to fit the rest of the poem. Sometimes I use a rhyming dictionary.

What about you?
Bonus question: what's the most unusual rhyme scheme that you've ever written that's still actually a rhyme scheme?

Rhyming poems with meter are probably my favorite type of poetry, when they are done well. They're hard to write. I tend to write most of my poetry in the form of rhyming lyrics with meter, and for some reason I find that easier than writing normal rhyming poetry with meter.

When I was quite little, I would insist that all my poems had to rhyme, and often they would turn out good- but not always.
So, nowadays, I've written many poems that don't rhyme and I probably love that style best of all. It's sort of like impressionist paintings- like quick little snippits of how something looks/feels/seems to you at that moment. If that makes sense. Lol. But it's still poetic and I love it.

I've made some of my poems rhyme, some of them not. My favorite ones don't (thanks, freeverse ). If they do rhyme, it sounds similar to the experience you described, Aldara.

One of the more complex rhyming schemes that comes to mind is in a form called an Italian sonnet. It goes abbaabba cdcdcd. I have yet to write one in that scheme, but I'm wanting to try my hand at it sometime.

Most of my poems rhyme, though some of them don't. Like you, I usually don't mean to make my poetry rhyme or not - just whatever happens when I start, happens. When I get stuck with a rhyme I'll find an online rhyming dictionary.



*Isn't sure if I totally understand the question* Do you mean like this?

I'm not a huge fan of poetry to begin with, but I do love a rhyming meter poem! The free form is much harder for me to attach to, I suppose. But the poetry that I do like rhymes and more often than not has meter. I guess it makes sense to me, and that is why I like it.

What is the difference?

I usually rhyme. It satisfies me with its pattern – it seems to tie all the ideas and poetry together and make it more intuitive and communicative. Besides that...it's fun. * grin *

I've been forced to write a few free form no-rhymes poetry recently, though...and, although it was a bit annoying at first, it was a good exercise. But I still like rhyming. It's actually easier for me to rhyme than not to rhyme, as I discovered when I kept on having to scrap poems when they rhymed in spite of me.

When I first began writing poetry (I was a very small girl) I thought that the only thing that defined poetry was 'a thing with lines that rhymed'. I didn't write very good poetry then...even I knew it. I gave up and decided I would write poetry when I had something to write about, instead of writing the next line based entirely on 'how in the world can I make it rhyme?' Wise little girl... * grins *

In lyrics, the different parts can have different meter. For example, the verse might have a particular meter, and the chorus might have another meter. The ideas explored in the verses also tend to build up to the chorus, which offers a nice structure. Those things can also work with normal poetry, but they're much more common in lyrics.

*risks saying something here even though he doesn't really understand poetry*

That sounds sorta like what I write if I write poetry (though less organized and more complicated, I think?)...though I'm not really at all sure. I just know that I can't keep it all in a recognizable pattern.

As for rhyming...my poetry is all basically an outpouring of emotion and I don't worry too much how pretty it will be when I'm done (I don't really plan on sharing them with many people anyway, usually). I think most of them have a mixture of free-verse, and rhyme--I like both styles, but rhyming seems to drive the words, and emotions into my head in a way that it doesn't otherwise.

I generally like to write poetry that rhymes exactly. I'm a bit OCD when writing poetry. As for conscious decision, it actually is for me. I start poetry from one verse, and try to finish it in the same meter I began. I've done several poems in a wide variety of meters, but from each beginning verse that comes to mind, I write the rest of it in the same pattern. Free-verse is something I've never really liked (unless it's Andrew's poetry. ). But I'm warming up to it a bit.

As for the most unusual rhyming scheme I've written... hrmm... Probably "Answer", because every verse rhymes with each other. I was happy with how that one turned out.

Usually when I write structured poetry I do it the same way.

I occasionally write sonnets (for the birthdays of dear but absent friends), both in the Shakespearian and the Italian schemes. But other than that I rarely if ever write poetry that deliberately rhymes. (A couple of lines in a poem may rhyme by coincidence, but that doesn't really count.) I find that writing in blank verse provides useful structure, but rhyming is hard enough for me to not be worth it except when I'm deliberately using a form that calls for it. (I make heavy use of a computer program I have that serves as a rhyming dictionary.)

I suspect that I might have started out in heroic couplets (rhyming pairs of iambic pentameter lines) rather than blank verse if I hadn't read enough Alexander Pope my senior year of high school to become heartily sick of that form.

Speaking of sonnets, there's a third kind of sonnet that's rarely done, the Spenserian. Its rhyme scheme is ababbcbccdcdee---like the Shakespearian form, only with the first rhyme of each quatrain being the same as the second of the previous quatrain.

And one correction (in the "it's not quite that simple" department):

That's one of the possible rhyme schemes for the Italian or Petrarchian (Petrarchan?) sonnet. It's divided into an "octave"---eight lines---and a "sestet"---six lines. While the octave is always abbaabba, there are a variety of accepted variations in the sestet's rhyme scheme. I've most often used cdecde, but there's also cdcdee and ccddee, and probably others.

I don't think so...I think what you're talking about is free verse. I think lyrics have a pattern, just a different pattern for the chorus and the verses.

Any chance this is available online and free?

Of course: here. (No idea if it's available for your platform.)

*nods* I guess I just meant it reminded me of it... And yeah I think that is what I write.

I really love this description of poetry. Unrhymed poetry is also my favorite style.