Rhyme Time - An Experiment With Etherees
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
Picture Courtesy Of BigFoto
Not long ago, I encountered a website displaying a few rhyming etherees and providing some possible rhyme schemes. I didn’t tackle one right away, but more or less let the notion simmer on my mind’s back burner for a couple of months while I dealt with the horrific winter nature offered us.
Then, just this past weekend, I suddenly found myself working on one. I had not set out to do this so much as one wanted to be written, as often happens with poetry of all types. Over the past few days, I have played around with rhymes schemes, working to incorporate the additional pattern into the already highly structured etheree format. In my first attempt I used couplets(a-a-b-b- etc.), which are fairly straightforward. I then worked with alternating lines in the a-b-a-b-c-d-c-d pattern.
My most recent effort was with a rhyme scheme beginning with a-b-c-b, and I found this more intricate pattern interesting to work with, trickier than the simple couplets but perhaps less difficult than the alternating form. Nature, as usual, provided me with a metaphor for this somewhat spiritual piece.
A Heavenward Glide: A Rhyming Double Etherée
Let
me not
shed a tear,
so overwrought
about matters which
are well past my control
that I make myself daft, my
thinking on an unpleasant roll.
For I need to realize what dwells
within my power to alter or change,
conducting my affairs in a calm style
in such manner as I might arrange.
I must let worries and concerns
which simply add up to pride
float on the western wind
and heavenward glide
past clouds to safe
realms above
in God’s
Love.
© Carol Knepper