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Poems that Don't Rhyme

A Note to Kids from Hilda and Henrietta - You might want to share this information with your parents. Maybe you can learn about creating poetry on the computer together.

If you are interested in writing a rhyming poem, Hilda and Henrietta suggest that you check out Part 1 in our Poetry Before You Know It series. There you'll learn how to wrote a funny poem called a limerick, and you'll get lots of suggestions for how to use the computer to help you write other rhyming poems.

But does a poem have to rhyme? No! So what about those times when your teacher wants you to write a poem that doesn't rhyme. Maybe the teacher will let you write any type of non-rhyming poem or maybe you'll need to write a certain type of non-rhyming poem. Poems that don't rhyme can be tricky, but they are also fun to write because you can concentrate on the words and what they mean and not bother about trying to rhyme.

There are many different types on non-rhyming poems such as the Acrostic, where the first letter in each line spells a word when you examine these letters vertically. You might want to write a poem for Mother's Day, for instance. So you'd start each line with a letter from a work such as MOM, MOTHER, LOVE–you get the idea. Then you write the lines in your poem following that method. Like this:

My Mother is a jewel in my heart.
Oh, she is always there for me.
Mom, I will love you always.

We just wrote a short Acrostic poem to give you the idea. You can use much longer words if you want, and when you write poems like this, type them into the computer and then use a computer art, paint, or photography program to make a perfect background or frame for your poem. A picture of you and your mother would be perfect to go with this Acrostic.

Because we think Japanese poetry called Haiku can be so beautiful, we thought we'd help you with the writing of one of those. In a Haiku you usually write about nature or feelings, and you should use a certain number of lines and syllables. Haikus are short poems with only three lines. The first and last lines have five syllables, and the second line must have seven syllables. Sounds confusing, but you know all about syllables, don't you? Count the syllables in this Haiku.

Flashing in the sky
It lights the trees on the hills, And then disappears.

Now it's your turn to write a Haiku. We did a Mother's Day Acrostic, so let's do a Haiku for Father's Day. Think of a beginning with five syllables–maybe:

Strong, handsome, funny,

He takes me to baseball games,

The computer makes it much easier for writers, especially poets. You can get lots of ideas by going to sites that tell you about different types of poems your teacher may want you to write.

Here're three sites to give you some help with writing poems:

Fern's Poetry Club
http://pbskids.org/arthur/games/poetry/

Giggle Poetry
http://www.gigglepoetry.com

Poetry for Kids
http://www.kathimitchell.com/poemtypes.html