This week's topic: Winter.
For the first week, I thought I'd start slowly, so I'm going to ask you to write a poem about something related to winter. It's a broad topic, and almost anything is accepted, so show me what you associate with the season. Still can't come up with a topic? Look out of the window and describe what you see.
The way these prompts will work is that you're free to write a poem like you want to, with no requirements except that it needs to be somewhat related to the topic of the week. However, I'll be awarding bonus points (again, without actual value) to people whose poems fulfil an additional requirement.
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This week's optional requirement: Write a poem using iambic and/or trochaic lines.
The basis of most classic poetry (apart from rhyme) is metre. Basically, the term 'metre' is used to describe the 'rhythm' of a poem, which is usually based on a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. This might sound a bit abstract, so let me give you an example of part of a possible poem for this week's prompt:
I heard the frozen river crack,
A loud and dreadful sound,
As, icebergs floating on its back,
Through frozen land it wound.
I bolded the stressed syllables in this example. The pattern of unstressed-stressed, unstressed-stressed, syllables used above is called a Iambic metre. (In this case, the lines are iambic tetrameter and trimeter, as there are respectively four and three pairs, 'feet', of stressed-unstressed syllables, but that's a lesson for another time.)
Now, stresses are somewhat subjective, as people tend to pronounce words differently, and it depends on how words are used in a sentence. However, some words just sound wrong if you place a stress improperly. (Most people wouldn't say frozen river, for example.)
Since iambic (unstressed-stressed) feet (pairs of syllables) have a name, pairs of stressed-unstressed syllables do so to, they're called Trochees. Continuing the previous example, trochaic lines could be:
Ever slowly moving onwards,
Passing open, passing freely,
Glistening with frozen sunshine,
'Til it reached the thawing sea.
I thereby cheated a little bit by ending on a stressed syllable 'sea', but this is quite common in most poems, as it sounds a bit better.
So, for the purpose of this exercise, all you need to remember is:
Iamb: unstressed-stressed
Trochee: Stressed-unstressed
In order to fulfil the optional requirements, you have to write a poem that uses lines made up of trochees and iambs. It doesn't matter if you only use iambic lines, trochaic lines, or mix them up, but show that you tried to use them.
Have fun writing!
