Poems that don't rhyme?

Question

So I was bored at the library today so I picked up a book of poetry. None of them rhymed. The author was talking about the poems as if they were the best ever made... I've always known poems don't technically have to rhyme but I had no idea that non-rhymers were so popular. I mean common! if it doesn't rhyme its just a paragraph! wheres the art in that?

Also on a side note I couldn't figure out how to read these "poems". You see It seemed as If I was supposed to read it as normal sentences, pausing only at the periods and commas. But then why are the sentences broken up into lines? Should I pause at the end of the line too?

Ugh. Non-rhymers suck!

"http://www.wordinfo.info/words/index/info/view_unit/2640/?letter=C&spage=26"

Now thats a poem!

Answer 1

Yeah .. when i was little i thought poems where things that rhymed .. but there not .. duh haha.

Non-Rhyming poems are acutally pretty good , i enjoy them =)

Answer 2

*laughs* Yeah, they seem to be pretty popular nowadays. There are a few "non-rhyming" poems that I think sound nice, but in general I really don't like poetry...rhyming or not. I can appreciate the hard work that goes into making things rhyme and not sound totally cheesy, though. Once I wrote a poem about how I can't write poetry, LOL.

"I cannot write good poetry,
The knowledge just escapes from me,
I cannot make the stanzas rhyme,
I try, and fail, every time.

So what's the big deal anyway?
Why not have in prose what you need to convey?
Why complicate things with these stupid rhyme schemes?
To make our lives miserable, or so it would seem.

My poetry sucks,
I know, I blew it.
But I wish you good luck,
Because I can't do it."

*laughs* It's supposed to be really lame and horrible. XD I'm pretty sure you're supposed to read non-rhyming poetry like you described, but I don't think you're supposed to pause at the end of the line unless there's a comma or period or other mark.

P.S, Have you ever read "The Cremation of Sam McGee"? If you haven't, here it is: http://www.wordinfo.info/words/index/info/view_unit/2640/?letter=C&spage=26
I think you'd like it. =D

Answer 3

The art in a non-rhyming poem might come from a beautiful phrase that brings a certain feeling or picture very clearly to your mind, or it might be in the rhythm that carries you along, or the art might be in making you laugh or see things from a different viewpoint.

I'm not saying that all non-rhyming poetry is good, but not all rhyming poetry is either.

Try reading Billy Collins.

Introduction to Poetry
by Billy Collins


I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide


or press an ear against its hive.


I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,


or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.


I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.


But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.


They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Answer 4

In a poem a line is a unit of rhythm. In a poem the poet decides where each line begins and ends. In a work of prose the printer makes that decision.
Non-rhyming verse has existed since before Shakespeare. Most of Shakespeare's plays are written in "blank verse" amd do not rhyme.
Since the nineteenth century "free verse" has become one of the most popular poetic forms. Walt Whitman was one of its pioneers. There is no rhyme and no traditional meter. There is a strong sense of rhythm. powerful imagery and figurative language.

Answer 5

A riming poem is neater, and has a extra familiar circulate, than a non-rimed one. this means that riming is extra suitable whilst the poet has a sparkling thought of what she needs to assert, and needs to modern a international which on the full is ordered and tidy. Non-riming poems are extra useful the place the belief has breaks and eddies, or the place the poet's international is muddled or complicated in some way. i don't think of you may opt for between them. Riming poems are extra like a lecture, or a lesson; an unrimed poem is extra like somebody having a verbal replace with you. some individuals are extra comfortable with rimed poems, while you evaluate that's what they're used to. yet once you turn to poetry for convenience, you're doing it incorrect. ..... i'm surprised that any you may study Keats' Ode to a Nightingale and think of it would not rime.

Answer 6

different kinds of poems give you different kinds of pleasure.

rhyming, and metered poetry (meter is where you count the syllables and they make a particular rhythm: da da DUM da da DUM, or DUM da DUM da da) are like songs without the music, and give you a similar sort of pleasure.

the rhythm and rhyme are obvious and the pleasure comes from getting into the rhythm of the piece and hearing the rhyming words come together at the end of the line.

free verse, which is non-rhyming, non-metered poetry, plays around with meter and rhyme in ways that aren't immediately obvious.

there's "internal rhyme," which is where words in the middle of the lines rhyme, BUT NOT the words at the end of the line.

there's non-regular meter, such as "cadenced verse", which uses "da da DUM" sometimes and then will use "DUM da" or "da DUM" suddenly.

the more poetry you read, the more sensitive you'll become to the slight changes in rhythm and sound you'll find in free verse.

free verse is somewhere in between the sound of music, and the sound of ordinary speech. it has a beauty, and gives a pleasure, that's different from metered, rhyming poetry.

the line breaks are there to give you extra clues about the irregular rhythms the poet is setting up for you. think about normal prose sentences. each word has a rhythm of stressed and unstressed syllables. then a whole sentence has a rhythm of stressed and unstressed words.

"where are you going tonight?" goes like this:
"DUM da da DUM da da da"

when a poet inserts a line break in the middle of a sentence, s/he is making the rhythm more complex.

"where are
you going tonight?"

sounds slightly different from

"where
are you going tonight?"

and

"where are you going
tonight?"

so when you read it out loud, you can read it straight through like prose, but you can also choose to give the words a different emphasis, depending on the line breaks.

Answer 7

Most poetry doesn't rhyme. Usually it has some sort of meter, but some don't even have that. What makes poetry different from prose is the use of language and the arrangement of words.

Answer 8

For some poems that do rhyme, check this out:
www.outskirtspress.com/taylorkelley