Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” is written in iambic pentameter[2] X Research source : “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” Tennyson’s “In Memoriam A. H. H. " is written in iambic tetrameter: 4 iambic feet that add up to 8 syllables per line. “Thou madest Life in man and brute”[3] X Research source
Rhyme schemes are usually labeled with letters (ABCD). Every time a line of the poem ends in a new sound, assign a letter to that sound. So, if the last word of Line 1 is “smoke,” it becomes an “A” – and so does every other line that rhymes with “-oke” (“joke,” “baroque,” etc. ). The next unique sound (and all its rhymes) would be “B,” the next would be a “C,” and so on. Some common quatrain rhyme schemes include: ABBA: We call this an “envelope quatrain” because the A rhyme envelopes the B rhyme. The result is a dense rhyme in the middle with a comforting envelope rhyme around it. When you write an envelope quatrain in iambic pentameter, we call it an Italian quatrain. When you write an envelope quatrain in iambic tetrameter, we call it an In Memoriam stanza. The name comes from Tennyson’s poem “In Memoriam A. H. H. ”[5] X Research source ABAB: We call this scheme an alternate or interlaced quatrain because of how the rhyme sounds alternate. AABB: The double couplet has two very strong rhymes. If you use this kind of scheme throughout a long poem, the rhyme might start sounding too sing-songy. Be careful! You can also insert a third sound into the quatrain, even if it remains unrhymed: ABCB, ABCA, ABAC, etc.
Practice developing a single quatrain before sitting down to write a whole poem. Don’t worry about writing something that will develop into a full poem; this is just practice. Try to develop a full thought in four lines of metered writing.
Tennyson said that his grief took the form of the In Memoriam stanza after his friend Arthur Hallam died. That’s why “In Memoriam A. H. H. " has that metrical pattern. The tetrameter (4 feet) feels like unfinished pentameter (5 feet). The A sound comes early, then returns at the end of each stanza. This resembles the poem and poet’s inability to move past Arthur’s death. [7] X Research source Thomas Gray’s wrote “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” in Sicilian quatrains. [8] X Research source A. E. Housman used double couplets in his “To an Athlete Dying Young” to mimic the upbeat tone of a cheering crowd. This contrasts the death that closes the poem. [9] X Research source An example of a repeating ABCD rhyme scheme (where none of the first four lines rhyme with one another but instead rhyme with the lines of the next quatrain) can be found in the first two quatrains of John Allan Wyeth’s Souilly: Hospital:Fever, and crowds—and light that cuts your eyes–AMen waiting in a long slow-shuffling lineBwith silent private faces, white and bleak. CLong rows of lumpy stretchers on the floor. DMy helmet drops—a head jerks up and criesAwide-eyed and settles in a quivering whine. BThe air is rank with touching human reek. CA troop of Germans clatters through the door. D
By choosing a subject you’ve been thinking about a lot, you ensure that you’ll have a lot of material to write about. It may be that you can’t think of anything specific that’s been on your mind lately. If that’s the case, start with a generic topic like nature or emotion, and try to develop a more specific thought about it. Observation is also a great way to come up with poem topics. Go to a crowded place, like the mall or a train station, and crowd-watch. Try to imagine the inner lives of the people you see, where they’re coming from and where they’re going. Take notes to help you remember what you found interesting about them later. You can turn them into a character in your narrative poem or dramatic monologue.
Now that you’re working with more than one quatrain, you can think about chain rhymes. This is when a rhyme sound from one stanza gets drawn down into the next one: ABBA BCCB CDDC, and so on. Look at Robert Frost’s “Acquainted with the Night” for an example of a chain rhyme. Note that Frost used tercets (three-line stanzas), not quatrains, in this poem. [11] X Research source Make your rhyme scheme more interesting by mixing rhyme styles. A poem that reads AABA BBCB CCDC would be more challenging and interesting to the reader. Even if the first B and C seem lonely all by themselves, they get repeated a lot in later stanzas. The only D breaks up the pattern, and, is a nice reminder that you don’t have to make every line rhyme. To start your first poem, AABB would be the easiest.
Use a rhyming dictionary or thesaurus for help if you get stuck on rhymes or synonyms. [14] X Research source [15] X Research source Brainstorm a list of words that rhyme with the last word of the line you’ve written, but try to find ones that relate to your topic. Build on the words you’ve brainstormed so they become a full quatrain. For beginners, try to create lines of similar lengths. Feel free to use slant rhyme, also known as off rhyme, to make a difficult rhyme work. Slant rhyme is when two words don’t rhyme completely but are like enough to feel like rhyme. Emily Dickinson was a great master of slant rhyme. In “Because I could not stop for Death —” she rhymes away with civility, chill with tulle, and day with eternity. [16] X Research source
Add depth to the poem by including a turn. A turn is a line starting with a word like “but” or “however” that takes on a different tone from the rest of the poem. It often introduces a new element (ex. a dilemma, a question, a solution, or anything else the reader hasn’t anticipated up until this point).
