Hi Neopoet members

We started a new Eternal Renga. This time participants will collaboratively create a ’Rhyming Couplet Quatrains Poem'. This is a new style of poetry writing Neopoet can be proud of introducing to the poetry world. Click the link http://www.neopoet.com/workshop/collaborative-couplet-quatrains and view the syllabus. Come join the round robins at the table and be a part of Neopoet history in the making.

The suggested metric form is "Iambic Tetrameter", which means 8 syllables per line, alternately unstressed and stressed eg da DUM / da DUM / da DUM / da DUM /

If you like rhyming couplet and quatrains this is the workshop for you. If you are new to this style of poetry and want to learn more about it come join. Here we learn from each other.

Even if you are not participating come by check us out anyway everyone is welcome.

What are rhyming couplets?
They are two lines of verse that usually rhyme and are the same length.

"Examples of Couplet Poems

Rhyming Couplet Example
But if thou live, remember’d not to be,
Die single and thine image dies with thee. Reference http://www.writeawriting.com/poetry/couplet/"

What are quatrains?
They are a four line stanza or poem usually with alternate rhymes.

"Examples of Quatrain Poems

The mountain frames the sky (a)
As a shadow of an eagle flies by. (a)
With clouds hanging at its edge (b)
A climber proves his courage on its rocky ledge. (b)

-The Mountain

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o’er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

-Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" Reference http://www.writeawriting.com/poetry/quatrain/

What is iambic tetrameter?
"Iambic tetrameter is a form of meter used in poetry consisting of four feet which feature a syllable that is unstressed followed by a stressed syllable. This pattern of unstressed and stressed may be expressed as beats assigned to each word, and is given the name iambic. Tetrameter refers to the number of times this pattern occurs in one line of poetry. The poems of Emily Dickinson frequently use this type of meter.

Every word used in a poem may be divided into syllables. A syllable is the beat assigned to a particular word, or portion of a word. The word "cup," for example, has only one syllable, or one beat in it, while the word "babble" contains two.

Human beings tend to speak words naturally with stressed and unstressed syllables. To stress one part of a word is to give more importance or more pronunciation to it than another portion. This is part of the natural cadence of speech. The word "away" has two syllables where the first is unstressed and the next is stressed. The "way" portion of the word is typically spoken longer than the initial "a."

Emily Dickinson is a famous poet who frequently used iambic tetrameter in her writing. She often spaced the lines of tetrameter with alternating lines of iambic trimeter, which hold only three feet instead of four. Her poem Because I could not stop for Death uses this pattern.

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality." Reference http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-iambic-tetrameter.htm

Sounds like fun come? Come one come all with your poetic pens. Lets take a poetry style that's been around for forever and spiced it up little with a collaboratively written poem by all members here.