Why you should use rhyme and rhythm

I teach English as a home tutor. I am the author of ten books. I am shortly going to produce a poetry book. I correspond by email with fellow writers and poets. I thought I'd share with you thoughts which I had when I wrote to fellow poet Geoff.

Yes, you can write what is known as free verse. My new friend Geoff who writes excellent poetry has teased me by sending a piece of blank verse and sneaked in one almost rhyming couplet: 'denying it and crying for it'. More like assonance.

I'm a believer in rhyme and rhythm. If you don't have either, you have verse, which means turn. Mere verse means you have a piece of prose badly punctuated, using line breaks instead of commas for emphasis of the first and last words of important sections of sentences. So, to my mind verse is merely poor punctuation. Verse only becomes poetry if it has rhyme and rhythm.

Read aloud any piece of classical poetry and it is beautiful to listen to. For example: Browning's Pied Piper of Hamlin; Wordsworth - I wandered lonely as a cloud; Kipling - If you can keep your head when all about you ... Masefield I must go down to the seas again To the lonely sea and the sky ...

Even bits of blank verse from Shakespeare, To be or not to be ... When you try to rewrite it you can convey the sense but not the grandeur of the rhythm which Shakespeare gives to major speeches by VIP characters, kings and heroes. (Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more ... King Henry).

That's why you can remember classic poetry but none of the modern stuff. The famous poem about an old person defiantly wearing a purple hat is rated as one of the top poems but I can never remember it and when I read it the idea is fun but there's no line which grabs my attention.

I can write you a poem of five rhyming couplets to use in a Wedding Speech or for yourself or a family member or friend for a birthday or birthday card for £75.
I am the author of a book called Wedding Speeches & Toasts.
I have a website http://annalondon8.googlepages.com
angelalansbury@hotmail.com