Poetry 3

There are many different tools employed by the poet in his work. Rhyme springs immediately to mind, but there is so much more to poetry than rhyme – indeed, there is even a great deal of prose poetry out there! Rhythm is one important aspect – it makes a poem almost musical. Two more oft used conventions are assonance (the repetition of vowel sounds) and alliteration (the repetition of the first consonant in a series of words). Here’s an example of each:

”The early bird catches the worm.”
"Face the fire at freedom's front."

It may be that you can recite pages of verse from memory but do you know how many syllables there are in an iambic pentameter? Even more obscure - do you know who was imprisoned in 1873 for shooting Arthur Rimbaud? Yes? Then have a go at this, the third in our series of four quizzes on poetry!