'How-to' write a rhyming poem for beginners
Written from my experience writing the poem "Shart" (Link below)
I am by no means a professional writer, but I am a complete lover of poetry. I sit here browsing through and look at a fair few samples, a lot of which are outside medium.
So what gives me the right to tell you how to write a successful rhyming poem? Truth be told, I don’t, but I do know a good one when I see it. This ‘how-to’ guide is aimed at people that do not write poetry and want to give it a go. It’s also a handy tool for me to look back on when I need a good kick!
For this guide, we will look at a recent one of mine which is “Shart” (link below). This for me received over 100 reads in a few hours and then carried on. That alone doesn’t make it good, the comments and feedback do though and people loved it.
What is “Shart” and how did it come about? A shart is when you accidentally poo yourself a little when you fart. No this didn’t come about because I had an accident 😂. In one of the groups I belong to, someone was writing a story and wanted ideas for something that could happen to the main character. The comment that hit the spot for me was ‘Someone pooped their pants, write their internal monologue’.
Get a pen and paper! Let’s play writing a poem 🤠
We will start with the subject. No this won’t be the title unless you want it to be. I tend to go for love, romance, break ups and affairs etc. “Someone pooped their pants” it made me giggle and my first thought was, I can write about that.Let’s go for something that happened to you. Write it down.
Next up is the story you want to tell. A good story has a beginning, middle and end. In some cases so should your poem. So take a couple of minutes and write down what caused it to happen (beginning), how you dealt with it (middle) and how you got over it (end). Try and make each part one or two sentences.
Now, this is where I side-track a bit. Before I start planning the content I go and hunt a rhythm. Dum de dum dum, each beat of the rhythm is a syllable. For “Shart” I found a rhythm that fell into four parts. This gave me a 4 line stanza (verse). Jot it down now. This isn’t set in stone so may vary slightly for each verse.
Out with some friends, Wandering around the mall. A grumble in my stomach, Doesn’t feel good at all.
That’s the first verse of “Shart” my beginning. Read it out loud a couple of times and you’ll find the rhythm I was after. Note how the second and fourth lines rhyme. I tend to stick to this system as it works for most of my content.
Originally this beginning was ‘I was out shopping with some mates the other day, when I felt a little unwell. Stomach-churning needing the toilet pretty quick feeling.’
By breaking down the sentence I can start playing with the lines of the verse. Doesn’t have to rhyme just yet though. Break your beginning down now, use the rhythm I have in mine and see how it comes out.
Now, look at the lines. Where do you want it to rhyme? If you can’t think of words that rhyme then use google. I often type in ‘rhymes with……’ to see what comes up. Find something relevant, if you can’t then modify a bit before so it then fits.
Use that same system for the middle and the end. Get that pen smoking and write done your ideas.
I find before I publish reading it out loud again and again helps. This will help you make sure you keep a rhythm and double-check rhymes.
Once you’re done then get ready to find a title. I didn’t want to use shit, poo or crap for this and needed something different that stood out. Shart was perfect. Get that down on paper too.
Some people like to add a subtitle to their poem. Ideal if it’s a little out the box. I will leave a suitable image in your capable hands, just remember a picture speaks a thousand words so choose wisely. Now get typing up and ready to publish. I hope this guide has been useful to you. It certainly will act as an aide memoir for me.
I am interested to find out how you did using this guide. So if you would like me to read, clap and respond then tag me at the end. If I’m tagged you will get my feedback.
Good luck and happy writing.
Martin
©MartinRushton 2020