sherlock60 | Mrs. Hudson's Poetry Page: A Scandal in Bohemia

Welcome once again to my poetry page!

I hope each week you will read Dr. Watson’s delightful narrative and then be inspired to write a poem related to it in some way. All forms of poetry are permitted, and further down the page there is a selection you might like to consider using over the coming weeks.

This week my featured form is terza rima.

Mr. Holmes was the one to suggest it, although he did worry it might prove “a little difficult for ladies”. So, in exchange, I said he could try knitting a bed jacket and matching nightcap while I wrote the poem. And as soon as I have published this page, I will be popping off to cut him free.

Young Writers gives the following definition:

A terza rima is an Italian form of poetry first used by Dante Alighieri.

A terza rima consists of stanzas of three lines (or tercets) usually in iambic pentameter. It follows an interlocking rhyming scheme, or chain rhyme. This is where the middle of each stanza rhymes with the first and last line of the following stanza. There is no set length to this form, as long as it follows the pattern as follows:

ABA
BCB
CDC
DED

With the last stanza as a couplet rhyming with the middle line of the previous stanza. In this case, EE.

I believe, taking the previous pattern as an example, you can also simply end the poem after DED with one line, E. Both are acceptable and, though iambic pentameter is usual, there is no set rhythm you have to follow. I myself have chosen to use anapaestic dimeter. (More or less.)

Here is my example:

You talk to your friend
As I bring in the tray
Of the humorous end

To someone’s wedding day.
And it brings to my mind
A bright time far away

When a man sweet and kind
Gave his own name to me.
A name that I find

Suits me elegantly.
So although you’re polite
Perhaps you can see

Why I’m distant a mite
And my expression grows sterner.
You haven’t got it quite right.

It’s a true black-mark earner.
My name is not Turner.

As always, this is simply something to consider for the future. Any form of poetry is welcome this week—and every week! Here are a few suggestions for you:

221B verselet, acrostic poetry, clerihew, epigram, haiku, limerick, palindrome poetry, sedoka, sestina, sonnet, tanka, terza rima, tongue twister poetry, triolet, tyburn, villanelle

Please leave all your poems inspired by A Scandal in Bohemia in the comments on this post. I look forward to seeing them!

Warm regards,

Mrs. Hudson