How important is,

Hi, Sarah - I've moved this to the main Poetry forum; I don't know how it ended up in the Chapbook.

Is rhyme important? It's one of the devices available to poets, and there might be a number of reasons to use it. If it's the right tool for the job, then it's a good one to use. Otherwise, no. So it's up to the poet.

It can enhance a poem's lyrical qualities: while it's less common in poetry than it used to be, rhyming is still very much standard practice in songwriting. (For that matter, not rhyming has been prevalent in poetry for a long time now - let's say about a hundred years or so.)

I've read that one use for rhymes is as a mnemonic device: they help to remember the poem. This aspect would have been important when poems or stories weren't written, but shared verbally.

I think rhyme has a stigma attached to it today because people feel obliged to use it, and it's used poorly or inappropriately. It is (unfairly, I think) assumed often that rhyme makes poems juvenile or cliché.

Perhaps because of the mnemonic aspect and the compulsion to overuse rhyme, I think we end up with bad poems that are easy to remember. Bad poems that don't rhyme are more easily forgotten.

Rhyme is good, but it's not compulsory.

^^^Agreed.

Rhyme frequently helps establish a rhythmic feeling in poetry as well, though syllables or many other devices can do that.

What's important in a poem is to use the devices that work and skip the ones that don't. This is unique to the individual poem.

Rhyme is more common in work for children in part because of the mnemonic aspects. It also helps young readers anticipate the possible next word. They know it will rhyme.

Children also instinctively like rhyme. I was doing work experience in a classroom recently and had lots of chances to hear kids get excited when someone accidentally rhymed something.

Which might be why rhyme has fallen somewhat out of favour. It may draw too much attention to the form of the poem, directing it away from the message. I've noticed that half-rhymes and internal rhymes are more popular these days (or maybe my critiquing partners just like pointing them out? ) probably because they don't draw as much attention to themselves.

But, as has already been said, the right tool, used in the right place and time, will work. There's no reason not to use rhyme if it's the right tool for what you want to express.

Hi, I hope it's okay I ask this question in this thread since it relates to rhyming poems. I am working on a collection of poems, hoping to submit it to a few local companies that publish poetry books. Anyway, some of my poems rhyme and some don't. Should I be consistent and either make them all rhyme or make them all non rhyming? Is it frowned upon to have a mix of rhyming and non rhyming in one collection?

Sometimes I will create a poem that is end rhymed throughout, most of the time, not. It depends on how I want the poem to be read, on how the words come to me in the begining.

Sometimes I will create a poem in which only the last two lines are end rhymed. That can often have the effect of making the whole poem seemed rhymed.

I often read poems that contain only mid-rhymes. When I've finished with a first read, I could could swear the whole poem was rhymed. A very well writen poem with only a rhyme or two throughout, will often seemed rhymed to me.

Is a mix of rhyming and non-rhyming poems frowned upon by small publishers? I should think it should be welcomed. Any poetry book has to reach a readership, and for it to be such that purchasers/readers will recommend a book to others, it should have variety. A mix of rhyme and non-rhyme is one way to create variety.

IMnsHO.

I don't think most publishers would mind. With that said, there are a few out there who are ardently anti-rhyme, or ardently pro-form and they probably won't publish your collection because it includes some of what they don't want.
Most of the time I see publishers saying something like "If you're going to rhyme, it had better be a spectacular poem" probably because they come across badly written rhymes all the time.

Good luck with your collection!

Ann-Marita said:

Should I be consistent and either make them all rhyme or make them all non rhyming? Is it frowned upon to have a mix of rhyming and non rhyming in one collection?

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Short answer, no. Do what works for each poem.

What holds your collection together? If it's style, than all poems would have to be in the same style. If it's theme, than all poems must relate to the theme. I think the latter makes a more interesting collection.

(Note: I've never put together a collection.)

Thanks for your responses! It is nice to hear your opinions. My collection is tied together by a theme, or at least that is my goal. For me, some of the poems seemed to work better as a rhyme, some didn't.