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The Unexpected Things in Life

"drill a bicuspid" and "still maladjusted" (from a song in Little Shop of Horrors)

Jerz, ''Poetry is for the Ear'' -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)

It is better to go for the unexpected rhymes. Anything expected is cliche and often boring due to overuse. Utilizing unexpected rhymes helps to keep the poem original. It is a challege, however, to do this. I know I, for one, always have had trouble with this when having to write poetry for school. I would always fall back on the easy rhymes that are overused--or even make up my own word (which didn't make any sense) just so that it would rhyme.

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Comments (1)

Kevin:

Don't forget, he also used the word "thrill" as a rhyme, too. Believe me, I grew up watching the film version of that and had to perform it in choir back in school.

Can you say, though, that using the "expected" rhyme is always cliché? Is that, perhaps, the purpose of the work or the author, to create something clichéd? One must always remember that rhyme acts as the basis of poetry - one must master the rhyme before they can enter the realm of free verse. Its like using a stylized fragment - you have to know how to use a full sentence before you can break the rules for stylistic purposes.

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on February 25, 2007 3:40 PM.

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