Poetry
Reading, writing and performing poems: rhyme, rhythm, verses, poetic devices and forms such as haiku, limericks and free verse.
📌 Key points
- Poems are organised in lines and verses (stanzas), not paragraphs.
- Rhyme is when words end with the same sound: cat/hat, night/bright.
- Rhythm is the beat of a poem. Clap the beats or count the syllables to hear it.
- A haiku has three lines with 5, 7 and 5 syllables (17 in total), often about nature.
- A limerick is a funny five-line poem. Lines 1, 2 and 5 rhyme, and lines 3 and 4 rhyme (AABBA).
- Free verse does not need to rhyme or follow a regular rhythm.
- Poets use imagery, similes, metaphors, personification, alliteration and onomatopoeia to create pictures and sounds.
- A rhyme scheme is shown with letters: lines that rhyme get the same letter (AABB, ABAB).
- When you perform a poem, use your voice: volume, speed, pauses and expression.
📖 Key words
- Verse (stanza)
- A group of lines in a poem.
- Rhyme
- Words that end with the same sound.
- Rhythm
- The pattern of beats in a poem.
- Syllable
- One beat in a word: but-ter-fly has 3.
- Haiku
- A three-line poem with 5, 7 and 5 syllables.
- Limerick
- A funny five-line poem with the rhyme scheme AABBA.
- Rhyme scheme
- The pattern of rhymes, shown with letters.
- Free verse
- Poetry with no regular rhyme or rhythm.
✏️ Worked example
What is the rhyme scheme of this verse?
The sun goes down behind the hill,
The birds fly home to rest,
The evening air is cool and still,
The owl sits in her nest.
- Give the end sound of line 1 ('hill') the letter A.
- Line 2 ends with 'rest', a new sound, so it is B.
- Line 3 ends with 'still', which rhymes with 'hill', so it is A.
- Line 4 ends with 'nest', which rhymes with 'rest', so it is B.
- Answer: ABAB.
Count syllables by clapping each beat of a word. Check every line of a haiku: 5, 7, 5.
Test yourself8 questions from a bank of 21. A new mix every time.
Start the quiz →