COUPLETSWriting a couple lines of poetry

WHAT IS A COUPLET? Couplets are two lines of poetry that

become a stanza in poetry. Stanzas are like "paragraphs" in poetry.

These two lines can be part of a longer poem or the couplet can stand alone as a short poem.

Couplets many times rhyme; however, they do not have to rhyme.

The two lines in the couplet can have the same rhythm pattern or meter and a complete thought.

WHAT IS A HEROIC COUPLET? Heroic couplets express a whole thought

and use iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter is basically when

there are 10 syllables in each line. The even numbered syllables are all stressed, or each second beat in the line is stressed. The reader will hear "da DUM" in the rhythm.

Each unstressed and stressed pair become a foot or iamb.

SOME EXAMPLES From Robert Frost:

Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee And I'll forgive Thy great big one on me.

End of Shakespeare’s Sonnet XVIII So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

LET’S TRY ONE! The barber cut off all my hair.

I think my hair is falling out.

Now you write another couplet.

WRITE YOUR OWN! You will write your own poem using the

first two lines and last three lines of “Sick”

You will insert your own name for “Peggy Ann MacKay”.

You will insert 8 original couplets in between the first two and last three lines.

Each line will have 8 syllables. Some of these will be your own; others

you can gather from your classmates.