[Bards] Poetic Exercise #4

Ulf Gunnarsson ulfie at cox.net
Tue Sep 23 17:38:28 PDT 2003


To this point, there has been no requirement of end-rhyme. End-rhyme is
where the words at the end of two lines rhyme, such as in "Roses are
red" and many nursery rhymes.  Rhyming as we know it today was not used
often in early times.  It started to grow in popularity after the
millennium, and predominated poetry by the High Middle Ages.

Exercise #4 asks you to write two stanza in the form know as "ballad". 
It is iambic, as before (duh DUH duh DUH ...).  The first and third line
are iambic tetrameter (four feet) and the second and fourth line are
iambic trimeter (three feet).  The second and fourth line should rhyme. 
To keep it just a little bit difficult, let's use nothing but perfect
rhymes.  As for topic, write about a humorous situation.

An example:

My love is all alone this night,
Her bed an empty sea,
Where once the storms of passion blew
And carried her to me.

She lies in sleep so well reposed,
A smile above her chin.
And if I beg forgiveness true
She might let me back in.

Ulf Gunnarsson




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