Rhyme Royal - A Poetic Process
A look at a different structure, and how I've gone about using it and creating something.
Recently when reading an excellent biography of St. Thomas More I came across a reference to “Rhyme Royal”. Some time spent looking online revealed that this is a form of seven line poetic structure which was popular in the mediaeval period and was much used by Chaucer. It seems to have been used as a building block of longer works, rather than as shorter stand alone poems.
The Poetry Foundation defines it as;
A stanza of seven 10-syllable lines, rhyming ABABBCC, popularized by Geoffrey Chaucer and termed “royal” because his imitator, James I of Scotland, employed it in his own verse
The wikipedia page discusses various syllable schemes, especially Iambic pentameter which seems a natural fit for lots of English works. As someone who spent 15 years trying to teach English, a stress timed language, to speakers of syllable timed languages I’m not necessarily the biggest fan of how people claim that a line is read in a certain manner.
In general though, I’ve come to be a fan of restrictions of form and and of trying to use certain patterns and devices. I’ve found it good training, and our writer forebears often used such systems for specific reasons. Mind you, I did grow up with regular dinner table discussions of poetic devices so I might just be odd.
So we have our structure, and I’m going to be creating a poem on the subject of books and bookshelves because it’s something I like and haven’t particularly written about here before. It also fits with the general feeling and aesthetic my writing falls under here.
As for tools, any online thesaurus is useful. Sadly they aren’t cool dinosaurs. A rhyme dictionary such as rhymer.com can also make things faster.
So for a first quick draft I can create this.
A miner searching in a packed library, For rare ore of classics and great works Hidden between paperback novels with pages leaking free. He never knows when his pick's treasure lurks, Each shelf is framed by hardcover built bulwarks. His eye glides along the spines, with tilted head, Until coming upon the title, its story no longer unsaid.
According to my draft history, that’s around fifteen minutes’ work.
I like some of it, but it’s time to have a re-read and re-work.
I like the image of the miner in the first line, though I’m not wholly sold on library and free as a great paired rhyme. If I change the “in a” to something else I can hopefully get a better pace and effect for the line.
So let’s look at an alternative
There's a miner searching among packed book stacks,
He seeks the ore of classics and great works.
Buried by pages fallen from paperbacks
He never knows where his treasured pick lurks.
Each shelf is framed by hardcover bulwarks.
His eye glides along spines, with tilted head,
Uncovering the gold, so it can be read.
Another twenty minutes and some editing leaves us here. Some better rhymes suck as stacks/backs and head/read, generally a little shorter and punchier. The line with pick has also been re-ordered but I’m keeping it as I like the gentle double meaning of pick.
I keep going and editing a few bits - for example changing “Uncovering the title, it can be read” to “Uncovering the gold, so it can be read” and then changing it once again to “He discovers gold; the next to be read” to keep the same person and to avoid using such a long word as uncovering. I also feel discover might fit better than uncover with the miner metaphor. The last line has taken longer than the rest together, but in anything short it’s the punchline or twist to the whole image you create.
That leaves me with this afternoon’s experiment in Royal Rhyme and explaining how I got there.
The Book Prospector
There's a miner searching among packed book stacks,
He seeks the ore of classics and great works.
Buried by pages fallen from paperbacks
He never knows where his treasured pick lurks.
Each shelf is framed by hardcover bulwarks.
His look glides along spines, with tilted head,
There he discovers gold; next to be read
Hi Sam, I enjoyed reading your process and progression. I feel I would have been pouring over the first draft so much longer than you did. This was a great illustration of the poetic structure and the final draft and that punch line made me smile.