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Poetry Prompts - Week 2

7 years ago
Commended by JJJ-thebanisher on 1/22/2017 9:14:26 PM

This week's topic: Cities. 

Have you ever wanted to write a poem about your undying hatred for Los Angeles? Felt a need to express your passion for the urban lifestyle in a ballad? Or just wanted an opportunity to explain your metaphysical hypothesis about the similarity between the concept of 'city' and the colour purple in an aesthetic manner? Then this is the week for you. 

This week's topic is intentionally broad again, and I'll accept almost any poem. It doesn't matter if you write about an actual or a fictional place, or just write about a guy going about his business in a city-like setting. As long as your topic has something to do with urbanity, or some very vague connection with city-life, you're good to go. 

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This week's optional requirement: Incorporate a form of rhyme in your poem. 

As I mentioned last week, one of the basics of classic poetry (apart from metre) is rhyme. In fact, rhyming seems to be ingrained in our language(s) to such a degree that we grow up with it from a very young age (you could for example think about nursery rhymes). Nevertheless, it might be useful to take a look at the different forms of rhyme that are often used within poetry.

If you ask someone about what they associate with (stereotypical) poetry, their answer will probably include some version of the word End Rhyme?. Basically, end rhyme means that the last word/sound of a line rhymes with a word/sound of another line in the poem. For example, an end-rhyming stanza for this week's prompt could be: 

'Tis a great and lasting pity,
Now I moved to New York City,
That my phone will have no bars
In those smelly subway cars.

Now it's usually easier to find a rhyme for a word that ends in a stressed syllable. In this case, bars and cars have only one syllable and are plurals, but words like a-far and bi-zarre could also rhyme with car and bar. This type of rhyme with words that end of stressed syllables is called masculine rhyme.

However, in the first two lines of the example above, pi-ty and ci-ty rhyme, but they both have two syllables, whereby their first syllable is stressed. This is called feminine rhyme, and it's sometimes a bit harder to do because we generally only recognise words as rhyming in these cases when both words have a similar ending, and their stressed syllables rhyme. For example, most people wouldn't consider the words 'piety' (pi-e-ty) and 'city' (ci-ty) to rhyme, even though they have similar endings.

Of course, if you can make the last words of the lines rhyme, why not consider making words within the same line rhyme? This is called Internal Rhyme, and could for example be used to emphasise a certain rhythm or metre in your poem. An example for this week's prompt could be: 

Now with a cry, a homeless guy
Asked for a place to stay.
I popped my collar, threw a dollar
And ran the hell away.

The internal rhymes above are bolded, and the end rhymes italicised. Easy enough, right? 

The last thing I want to discuss this week are so-called Slant Rhymes. These are often called some other name, and there's plenty of different forms of them, but they all have in common that they use words that almost rhyme, but not perfectly. For example, I could submit something that looks like this: 

The woman that I thought I loved,
Kept silent as away I moved
From out this desolate, rural wild
Into a larger, urban world

In the above example 'loved' and 'moved' look like they rhyme, as they're written almost exactly the same, but are pronounced quite differently. (This is called eye rhyme, for those interested.) Similarly, the consonants in 'wild' and 'world' are nearly the same, but they still don't rhyme because their different vowels make them sound too different. (This is called consonant rhyme) Traditionally speaking, slant rhyme is sort of frowned upon in high-brow poetry. However, I'm not expecting you to write high-brow poetry, and slant rhyme can be quite entertaining if used correctly, so do whatever you want with it.

So, for the purpose of this exercise, all you need to remember is: 

End Rhyme: a. End of the word, which is also the stressed syllable. (Masculine rhyme)
                      b. End of the word + last stressed syllable. (Feminine rhyme) 
Internal Rhyme: Rhymes within the same line. 
Slant Rhyme: Almost rhymes, but not quite right. 


In order to fulfil the optional requirement, you only have to use some form of rhyme, somewhere in your poem. I'd advise a rhyming scheme, but that's not required at all, and is completely up to you. 

Have fun writing!
 


 

Poetry Prompts - Week 2

7 years ago

@Bannerlord @Crescentstar @Orange @Mizal @Lancelot @Mayana @Betaband @Kwism1127 @Leoscales7 @bbshark

The above post ended up a bit longer than intended, but I hope it's still somewhat helpful. Here's the point list for last week's prompts. I kinda realised halfway through awarding points that it's kinda difficult to figure out who intended to write something for the bonus points, and who didn't, so please correct me if I awarded you too few (or too many) points:

Bannerlord:    2
Crescentstar:    2
Kwism1127:    2
Leoscales7:    2
Mayana:        2
Bbshark:    1
Betaband:    1
Lancelot:    1
Orange:     1

I was also thinking about making a seperate feedback thread for these things, but figured that they would probably die out pretty soon, so please leave commentary/feedback/what not on poems that you like. However, it might be handy to not reply to the poem posts directly, but tag them in a different one, so people can still change them if they want to.

Poetry Prompts - Week 2

7 years ago
I'm almost sure I didn't manage to complete the bonus requirement last week. But hey, more points the better! :) Will have something ready soon, hopefully today.

Poetry Prompts - Week 2

7 years ago
Commended by JJJ-thebanisher on 2/3/2017 5:49:26 PM

As the World Came Crashing Down

As the world came crashing down on us all
It began as an ordinary day
Never foreseen was our great city's fall

The youngest amongst us began to bawl
While the rest of us would desperately pray
As the world came crashing down on us all

A little girl ran by, dropping her doll
Out of the city, under the archway
Never foreseen was our great city's fall

Never have any of us felt so small
One day after Vulcanalia day
As the world came crashing down on us all

Nothing left of the city we recall
Except for ash, rubble, and bits of clay
Never foreseen was our great city's fall

The ghosts of Pompeii come to beg and crawl
Two thousand people could not get away
As the world came crashing down on us all
Never foreseen was our great city's fall

Poetry Prompts - Week 2

7 years ago

The bustling city,

Bright lights,

All nothing like the woods back home.

Silence, almost eerie in its presentation

Led my head to look above

And always find its destination.

Stars.

A myriad of heavenly bodies,

Buoys in an ocean deep

And dark enough to cast a spell

Of magic to forever keep. 

Yet from this tower of the rich,

The land fit only for Marquis,

In crowds of people, trains and buses,

Noise their rightful symphony,

I look from windows large and wide

To gaze upon the murky sky.

Yet all I find is smog and smoke

To char and gag my simple lungs.

I am weary.

Dreary skylines leave me

Tired, mired down by broken

Dreams and idle thoughts

That bought my ticket here tonight.

I would do it again all the same.

Poetry Prompts - Week 2

7 years ago

An evening in Sodom

Far below me, a taunting, growling snake
Of traffic fills its endless asphalt bounds.
-Suffocating gases and faded chrome-
Slithering, coiling endlessly around  
This grey and concrete wasteland I call home,
With sickening pollution in its wake.

Far off, in the distant moonlight, glimmers
A filth-clogged river that sluggishly moves,
Trapped inside its coffin of grimy quays,
-Tombstones of a choking city that proves
Helplessly inept- as it makes its way
To where a desolate ocean shimmers.

This city, rife with sin and decadence,
Where virtue and morality give chase
To dark desire without a consequence,
I wouldn't trade for any other place.

Poetry Prompts - Week 2

7 years ago
@Romulus, I liked your poem a lot. The ABCBA scheme was interesting, I saw it for the first time now. Really think this should be commended.

Poetry Prompts - Week 2

7 years ago
WIP-Do Not Respond

 

Of all the places I have thought of going,

Of all the places I have thought of staying,

My last thought was of a city, an apartment within that city,

I have always known the countryside, all the hoeing and all the towing.

 

I looked out the window of the soaring plane,

Cloud by cumulus cloud it flew by,

Mile by mile,

It took me away from the wide open plain.

 

Away from my friends

Poetry Prompts - Week 2

7 years ago
I'm sorry for such a late entry, time and health boath seem to be my enemies. I don't like this one all that much, but when do I like anything I do?

Alone

Any village, city, town,
on my face brings a frown.
I want to live alone,
where the trees are overgrown.

In a city it's so loud,
you get lost in the croud.
I want to live alone,
on a island of my own.

I'm fed up with living here,
it gets worse every year.
I want to live alone,
Where the sunsets still are shown.

And the whole world is so sad,
I think I'm going mad.
I want to live alone,
where my madness won't be known.

Poetry Prompts - Week 2

7 years ago

This is way later than intended as I've been/I'm a bit busy this week, but I did want to give some feedback for last week's prompts:

@Orange I really like your poem, didn't expect anyone to do a Villanelle form yet, but I think you managed to pull it off nicely, and it fit the story you want to tell. Good job.

@Mayana I like the 7-6-6-7 scheme, it's a nice attempt at finding new ways to express yourself. You could consider also implementing an abba rhyming scheme, or similar, in future works, to help emphasise this arrangement. 

Poetry Prompts - Week 2

7 years ago

I'll try my hand at some poetry because why not.  I'll do a Shakespearean sonnet ryhme scheme. ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

 

Why should we just lie at the edge of eternal bliss

Living day to day to day; repeating the same cycle

What is it that all we humans miss

Is it something that sits right beyond our primitive survival

 

Some will tell you it comes so easy

Have a line of women right at your door

But quickly it leads to being sleazy

And happiness will not be with you anymore

 

Maybe happiness comes from the feeling

The sensations of eating, tasting, smelling

But after they are over the happiness is fleeting

And the day after, the sadness is overwhelming

 

Maybe the secret lies in just being

Rising from within, when we let go of needing

Poetry Prompts - Week 2

7 years ago

Edit Lock - Feedback is appreciated

Poetry Prompts - Week 2

7 years ago
The theme for the second week's topic was cities. You didn't mention them. This was the last week's topic, 12 days old. If you want to show off your poem, make a new one.

Poetry Prompts - Week 2

7 years ago

Not trying to show off. If I was I would have to be better. Do you have any feedback?

Poetry Prompts - Week 2

7 years ago

I'm slightly biased due to my adoration of sonnets, but I love the rhyme scheme. I also wanted to say that I really liked the first stanza; it's very beautifully written, especially the first line. My only complaint is that the third and fourth line sound a bit awkward due to them being such different lengths. Other than that, I thought it was a really good poem.

Poetry Prompts - Week 2

7 years ago

I like your sonnet approach, it does really lend itself to a week about rhyme schemes. Though technically speaking it's not really Shakespearean, as half/slant rhyme (cycle-survival, feeling-fleeting, etc.) is then usually only used in exceptional cases when it contributes to the overall story.

I also feel like some lines don't scan properly, especially the fourth one, as the length of your lies tends to vary quite a lot within each stanza. (With regards to the fourth line, I think it's also caused partially by the words 'sits right beyond', where there are about two or three stressed syllables that don't follow each other neatly.)

Though, all in all, I thought this was a nice attempt for this week's prompt, though it didn't really fit with this (last?) week's theme.