Writing a couple lines of poetry
 Couplets
are two lines of poetry that
become a stanza in poetry. Stanzas are like
"paragraphs" in poetry.
 These
two lines can be part of a longer poem
or the couplet can stand alone as a short
poem.
 Couplets
many times rhyme; however, they
do not have to rhyme.

The two lines in the couplet can have the
same rhythm pattern or meter and a
complete thought.
 Heroic
couplets express a whole thought and
use iambic pentameter.
 Iambic pentameter is basically when there
are 10 syllables in each line. The even
numbered syllables are all stressed, or each
second beat in the line is stressed. The
reader will hear "da DUM" in the rhythm.
 Each unstressed and stressed pair become a
foot or iamb.
 From
Robert Frost:
Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee
And I'll forgive Thy great big one on me.
 End
of Shakespeare’s Sonnet XVIII
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
 The
I
barber cut off all my hair.
think my hair is falling out.
 Now
you write another couplet.
 You
will write your own poem using the first
two lines and last three lines of “Sick”
 You will insert your own name for “Peggy Ann
MacKay”.
 You will insert 8 original couplets in between
the first two and last three lines.
 Each line will have 8 syllables.
 Some of these will be your own; others you
can gather from your classmates.