sherlock60 | Mrs. Hudson's Poetry Page: The Dying Detective

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 epitaph.

The epitaph does not have a specific form as such but Shadow Poetry gives this definition:

An epitaph is a brief poem inscribed on a tombstone praising a deceased person, usually with rhyming lines.

I think though that this definition can be expanded upon and played with.

Here is my example poem:

Here lies Mr. Sherlock Holmes’s tenancy agreement:

He believed that money overcomes—
That favour’s won by princely sums.
But I am made of sterner stuff
Goodnight, sweet prince—I'd had enough.

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, beeswing, blackout poetry, blues stanza, bref double, call and response, chastushka, cinquain, circular poetry, clerihew, colour poems, concrete poetry, Cornish verse, curtal sonnet, diamante, doggerel, double dactyl, ekphrasis, elegiac couplet, englyn, epigram, epitaph, epulaeryu, Etheree, fable, found poetry, ghazal, haiku, Italian sonnet, kennings poem, lanturne, limerick, lyric poetry, mathnawī, palindrome poetry, pantoum, poem cycle, quintilla, renga, riddle, rime couée, Schüttelreim, sedoka, septet, sestina, sonnet, tanka, tercet, terza rima, tongue twister poetry, triolet, tyburn, villanelle

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

N.B. Next Sunday we will be writing poems for the first half of The Valley of Fear and things will be as usual.

However, the Sunday after that—the 27th—I will be celebrating the season with Mrs. Turner and her family. And so, someone from the Marylebone Monthly Illustrated has graciously offered to produce the Poetry Page just for that week. I believe she has something rather lighthearted planned—but do please feel at liberty to prepare and post poems for the second half of The Valley of Fear as well, if you desire to do so.

Warm regards,

Mrs. Hudson