The Third Thing to Know

In the next lesson we will talk about how to choose rhymes. Until then, continue to read poems and count out the beat. Remember not all poets construct their poems with the same level of structure.

That is OK.

After all, poetry is art.  Art is creative.

It is alright to break rules to be creative. But it is also important to know what the rules are, so our creation will be good.

Until next time, happy writing!

Poetry is an interesting form of writing. The underlying structure is tight and full of additional rules, but the artistic element is often looser and more expressive.

A regular children’s picture book follows a strict formular. There is a character, the character encounters a problem. The character solves the problem. This creates a complete story.

It can be simplified down to the words:

Character

Problem

Solution.

There are children’s books written in prose that don’t bother with this formula, but they’re not good stories because they don’t have an excellent underlying plot construction.  

Rhyming books, on the other hand, can dispense with the traditional foundational plot construction and still be a good book.

If Jack and Jill are walking through the forest in prose, they had better encounter that creepy old lady in a candy house, or at least need to run away from a hungry wolf.

If Jack and Jill are walking through the woods in poetry, it’s perfectly fine for them just to marvel at the gorgeous Autumn colours.

This is because poetry and prose serve different functions in English.

The primary purpose of prose is clarity.

The primary purpose of poetry is expression.

If you use prose to tell a story, then something interesting needs to happen.  The writing itself is not interesting. It is used to relay interesting occurrences.

Interesting prose is interesting because interesting things happen and are said in a clear manner.

 Prose is utilitarian and we judge its quality by its directness. The easier the prose is to understand, the better the quality of the prose.

Poetry is expressive. The writing is interesting. Because the writing is made interesting by the introduction of additional rules, like rhythm and musicality, plot is not as important as it is in prose.

Of course, you can combine the standard story formular (Character/problem/solution) into a rhyming children’s book. Dr Seus does this very effectively with The Cat in the Hat.  

That’s a lovely idea, but it’s not necessary.

If we return to St George and the Dragon by Alfred Noyes, we find a combination of the standard prose plot and the loose construction of a poetry plot.

If we break down this poem, we get the following plot:

St George solves a problem.

Solving the problem creates another problem.

There is no solution, and we leave St George sulking about his problem.

Although you could construct a children’s book in prose using this plot structure, it wouldn’t be satisfying. It would leave the reader with too many unanswered questions. It would lack closure.

But in poetry, this doesn’t lack closure because, (A) the form is looser and focusses more on expression than explanation and (B) the fact that the poem ends on a rhyme,

"The creechah weighed a ton at most,"

He muttered through his vizahd.

"I do not feel inclined to boast

About that puny lizahd."

Finishing on a rhyme provides us with another kind of closure. It is more of a musical closure than a literary closure, but it is closure, and it works.

When you are picking your rhymes, I recommend using a rhyming dictionary. I like using an online rhyming dictionary because using a search bar is quicker than flipping through a book.

Using a rhyming dictionary is a good idea because coming up with a good, powerful rhyme is harder than you might think. Some of the best rhymes might not be intuitive and a dictionary reminds you of words you might have overlooked.

In my final post on this subject, I will demonstrate how to bring it all together and write your own rhyming children’s picture book. Until then, please check out my video on the subject of picking rhymes and adding story into your poetry.

Until next time, happy writing!

 The picture of the writing hands was graciously provided by Pixabay. The Writing belongs to R.M. Hamilton. All rights reserved.