sherlock60 | Mrs. Hudson's Poetry Page: The Norwood Builder

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 the renga.

Young Writers gives this definition:

Renga, means 'linked poem'. Poets worked in pairs or small groups, taking turns composing the alternating three-line and two-line stanzas.

To create a Renga, one poet writes the first stanza, which is three lines long with a total of seventeen syllables – the same structure as a haiku. The next poet adds the second stanza, a couplet with seven syllables per line. The third stanza repeats the structure of the first (another haiku) and the fourth repeats the second, alternating in this pattern until the poem is completed.

As a renga cannot be written on one’s own, I asked my friend Mrs. Turner if she would not mind assisting me with the composition of this poem:

Mr. Holmes returned
I longed for this to happen
But had thought him dead

Yes, I did hear the screaming
I shall call and console you

The Doctor moved back
I had missed the dear man but
He makes his friend worse

Please sit down and rest yourself
I shall make you hot, sweet tea

Mr. Lestrade came
My tenants have formed a choir
With constables too

Stay calm now, Mrs. Hudson
I am coming with the gin

My grateful thanks to Mrs. Turner. I do not know what I’d do without her.

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, abecedarian poetry, acrostic poetry, alexandrine, blackout poetry, call and response, cinquain, circular poetry, clerihew, colour poems, concrete poetry, diamante, doggerel, double dactyl, ekphrasis, elegiac couplet, epigram, epulaeryu, fable, found poetry, ghazal, haiku, lanturne, limerick, lyric poetry, palindrome poetry, renga, riddle, sedoka, septet, sestina, sonnet, tanka, tercet, terza rima, tongue twister poetry, triolet, tyburn, villanelle

Please leave all your poems inspired by The Norwood Builder in the comments on this post. I look forward to seeing them!

Warm regards,

Mrs. Hudson