[Roger Slater]

But seraphically and graphically are a perfect rhyme, Brian. The final stress of one begins with "r" and the final stress of the other is kicked off with a "gr" -- I think those are considered distinct, and they certainly are distinct to my ear. (Cf. perfect rhymes like kill/skill, tall/stall).

[John Whitworth]

The lady angels beamed seraphically
And shared their angel loving sapphicly.

Kazoom!

[Chris O'Carroll]

He stretched his neck giraffically.

The contortionist twisted her limbs taffically.

He regarded the pint quaffically.

They performed the task not wholeheartedly, but halfically.

The audience responded to the comedian with a few chuckles, but not belly-laughically.

The producers raised money for their film Zach Braffically.

Instead of charging like a bull, Ferdinand gamboled calfically.

[Brian Allgar]

Originally Posted by Roger Slater

But seraphically and graphically are a perfect rhyme, Brian. The final stress of one begins with "r" and the final stress of the other is kicked off with a "gr" -- I think those are considered distinct, and they certainly are distinct to my ear. (Cf. perfect rhymes like kill/skill, tall/stall).

Of course they are, Roger. The problem is that in the first line, 'dogmatically' is not a perfect rhyme for the other two words, and I don't think any of Chris's ingenious neologisms, nor John's suggestion, could be used to replace it.

[Jayne Osborn]

Hi Roger,

I haven't attempted this one yet, but I thought I'd just point out, as no one else has, that you have a typo in L1 (post #8) :

There once was a girl from Nantucket
Who told me, "Your free verse can suck it!"
With a form-friendly curse
She rolled up my free verse,
And I still can't believe where she stuck it.

Jayne

[Ann Drysdale]

Rhyme gets you noticed, but it’s just a flyer
To get the punters to the proper stuff.
It’s to free verse a poet should aspire;
Rhyming and chiming isn’t strong enough
To carry messages of any weight
And real involvement of the here and now
Demands the rawness of the naked state
Of language. One can just imagine how
Imaginative thought would feel the pinch
Of being squeezed into a villanelle
Whose rigid metre wouldn’t give an inch
When freedom’s feet demanded space to swell.
Who in their right mind would contrive a sonnet
If anything worthwhile depended on it?


If I chopped this up and made it look like FV, do you think I'd get away with it - or rather NOT get away with it, if you get my drift?

[Brian Allgar]

Ann, why don't you make the FV version and add it to your post above for easy comparison? And don't forget you've got an extra two lines to play with.

[John Whitworth]

Naw. It won't work as Free Verse. Mind you, nothing much does. The Spectator on line seems to think thatTed Hughes is a champion of free verse. Blind ignorance perhaps?

Would Ogden Nash count as free verse? One could do an Ogden Nashery.

[Brian Allgar]

John, I'm thinking after all of using your "sapphically" instead of the original imperfect rhyme "dogmatically". Of course, it could be objected that sapphics aren't free verse, but I might get away with it. What do you think?

"Free verse", said the Poetess sapphically,
"Is the bees' knees", and smiled seraphically.
But it gets up my nose, for it’s really just prose
That’s been buggered about typographically.

Needless to say, this wipes out the entire trillion that you owed me.

(And yes, this is actually a limerick, but I had to combine 2 lines to stay within the overall 16-line limit.)

P.S. Ogden Nash? But he rhymes and (somewhat) scans all over the place!