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Sample Rhymed Poem
The writer recasts her poem to have regular rhythm and rhyme. She also breaks it into stanzas (groupings of lines). Read the poem aloud. Do you prefer the rhymed poem or the free-verse version?
Dog Park Dance
Lines shift from four stresses to three stresses. New girl. Old beagle.
Dog park in a new town.
On a bench by a fence,
crouched and staring down
like a pair of hungry eagles.
The end rhymes shift throughout the poem. Pepper barks, “I want to meet you!”
The girl begins to grumble,
“Don’t you know that dog’ll eat you?
Oh . . . avoid a rumble!”
She lets him go but shouts, “Oh no!”