…get rhythm in your poetry

The parts that make up a word are called syllables. Words can have one syllable (such as ball) or more than one (sta-di-um has three syllables, for example).

When we speak we usually put a stress on one part of a word (sta-di-um). People writing poetry can arrange words so that the stresses of the different words form a rhythm. This is called metre.

Some poems use a strict metre, where it is kept the same all the way through. Some change the metre from one part to another to create special effects, and some don’t use any particular metre or rhyme – this last kind of poetry is called free verse.

When the same sound is used at the ends of words, this is called rhyme (for example shoe and flew rhyme because they both end with an ‘oo’ sound, even though they are written differently).

Two lines of poetry together that rhyme at the end are called a rhyming couplet:

I wake up just to go back to sleep
I act real shallow but I’m in too deep
(Dizzee Rascal: ‘Bonkers’)

When two or more words are grouped together that have the same sound at the beginning, this is called alliteration:

She been buckle belt beaten from the bat like a brat
(Jamie T: ‘Sheila’)