Quote:
Originally Posted by VeggieLover
I've always been good at writing free verse poetry, (if I may toot my own horn :O ) but the second I start to add the rhyme and more structured flow that is required of a song, I loose the imagery and unique flare that I'm proud of in my other work. Are there some excersices or guidelines that could help me out? Rhyme and I just don't get along, I haven't the slightest clue how to put it in there.
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Hi, VeggieLover,
I *love* writing rhyming poetry (out of vogue in poetry circles) because of the chess-like challenge of trying to make sense while using meter and rhyme! Rhyming isn't necessary in songs, but I prefer it. I actually decided to start writing songs partly because it is a fun way for me to use my penchant for writing rhyming poetry.
I do three things when trying to write poetry that rhymes:
(1) I always start with the concept I want to convey. The concept produces a few words. When I have a word I want to use, I think of all the words that rhyme, then test them out and see what happens with each one...that is, what concept the word forces me to develop. It's like standing at a juncture of many streets and going down each one for a little while. This stage, for me, takes a lot of playing around with words and ideas and requires a lot of sheets of paper filled with many rough drafts, fragments of sentences, crossed-out lines, etc.
(2) I always read the lines out loud (not singing them)...as if I were just reading text...to feel if they flow or if they require me to accent words in odd places in order to keep some sort of meter (like iambic pentameter).
(3) I spend hours (really!) going over and over the lyrics, trying to improve them, shift things around, work out rough edges. I love the whole process, which for me is very time-consuming and absorbing.
You asked for an exercise to practice creating rhyming poetry. An exercise I've tried is to take one of my non-rhyming poems and convert it into a rhyming poem, working to retain as much of the meaning as possible. I'll try digging out an example of this and post it in my collection, if you want to see what I mean.
I hope you'll start your own VeggieLover Collection thread and share some of your free verse poetry and your rhyming songs. I think it is great that you toot your own horn, because, ya know, sometimes no one else will and so feeling happy about and satisfied with your own work is very important.
--Erica