By the way, the poem by Quincy that just got published (see Accomplished Members) has some great rhymes in it. They're all the way through, but two of my favorites: "virus/Osirus," "fences/blintzes." Check it out, there are lots more.

Other great rhymes (e.g., knew so/Caruso) are here, in Catherine Tufariello's "Death of a Doorman," which is a great poem: http://www.valpo.edu/english/vpr/tufariellodeath.html

Bob,
Thank you for the link to the poem-it is quite wonderful.

Martin

I'd like to read your poem, David. Mine really has only 2 problems: a badly placed caesura and all the lines are pretty much end-stops. I've worked on it for almost 3 years. It still isn't perfect, but it was my first sonnet.

Christy--here's the poem. "Walla" means, actually, "one associated with," though it is often used of merchants (though not exclusively). The rhymes in this villanelle are some conventional, some slant.

dwl

Birthwalla

The cigarwalla sold his smoky wares
and Padma felt the first contraction’s pain.
The fruitwalla arranged his mounds of pears

as Aamir helped her down the narrow stairs
and to the taxi waiting in the rain.
The cigarwalla sold his smoky wares

and smiled. He would be much less in arrears
if Padma had a boy to be their scion.
The fruitwalla arranged his mounds of pears

and smiled as well. He breathed out thankful prayers:
they’d celebrate, he’d get a lot of gain.
The cigarwalla sold his smoky wares

and thought, Cigars for everyone! Charge d’affaires
of male camaraderie I’ll be ordained!
The fruitwalla arranged his mounds of pears

and calculated profits when the cheers
of celebrating kin rose in refrain.
The cigarwalla sold his smoky wares.
The fruitwalla arranged his mounds of pears.

Yes, DWL, wallas! I especially like the job title Dhobi Walla (laundry man).

Since you-all are mentioning or posting your own... I started thinking about the more outrageous rhymes I’ve perpetrated. In one little confection I rhymed “sandwiches” with “brand which is”. Now tell me a dozen did it before me! I doubt, though, that many have rhymed “Zimbabwe” with “drab way”. That occurs in my most relentless and sustained rhyming effort, Djibouti Jazzband . I enjoyed myself there because I thought, outrageous or not, all the rhymes fitted the flow.



[This message has been edited by Henry Quince (edited February 14, 2008).]

Limericks of course invite clever rhyming.

[This message has been edited by Jan D. Hodge (edited February 22, 2008).]

On the subject of rhyme, I managed to study "Pippa Passes" in college without even noticing (or the professor indicating) the immortal rhyme of "owls and bats, cowls and twats."

Browning, God bless his innocence, thought a twat was part of a nun's habit.

Gail, a few years ago we had a thread on this and I did a take on it. The pun is clearly deliberate in one of Will's plays ("Taming of the Shrew"?).


Then, owls and bats,
Cowls and twats,
Monks and nuns, in a cloister’s moods,
Adjourn to the oak-stump pantry.

Browning, "Pippa Passes"


The Poet Who Mistook His Hat for a Twat

Some balding nuns, their duties shirkin’,
learned about the perfect merkin
when reading rhymes with wording quaint
(but no allusions to a saint!)
that made them restless on their cots:
the poet traded hats for twats.

Cheers,


------------------
Ralph

Slumming, I was listening to the song "What It's Like" by the rap star Everlast.BANNED POST He had some good ones:

We've all seen the man in the liquor store begging for your change
His beard is dirty his dredlocks are full of mange
He asks a man for what he can spare with shame in his eyes
"Get a job, you fucking slob," is all he replies.
But God forbid you'd ever walk a mile in his shoes--
'cause then you really might know what it's like to sing the blues.

Or,

This kid named Max used to make fat stacks on the corner with drugs.
He liked to stay up late, he liked to get shit-faced and keep apace with thugs . . .

and so on.