Mrs. Hudson's Poetry Page: The Valley of Fear, Pt. 1, Chaps. 4-7

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Welcome once again to my poetry page!

I hope each week you will read Dr. Watson’s delightful narrative and then go on 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.

There is no poem from Rachel this week, I’m afraid. My housemaid is presently “on secondment” to Mr. Holmes and will be working with him and Dr. Watson on a case for the next few weeks. (For heaven’s sake, Mr. Holmes—I realise justice cannot wait, but neither can the ironing.)

So, for the moment we are returning to having a new poetry form each week to try. And this week my featured form is acrostic poetry.

Writer’s Digest gives this definition:

The most basic form spells words out on the left-hand side of the page using the first letter of each line. The brave at heart can even try double acrostics–that is, spelling things out using the first and last letter of each line.


Here is my example poem, using the basic form:


The landlady’s outlook
Is pessimistic.
My glass half empty—
Endless push and pull.
Flavour of juniper,
Optimistic make me!
Return to me a
Glass half full!
(I’ll tell off my tenants by and by
Now I’ve got the bottle to try.)



But you do not have to use this form, if you do not wish to. 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, ballad, beeswing, blackout poetry, blues stanza, bref double, Burns stanza, call and response, chastushka, cinquain, circular poetry, clerihew, colour poems, concrete poetry, Cornish verse, curtal sonnet, diamante, doggerel, double dactyl, ekphrasis, elegiac couplet, elegiac stanza, elfje, englyn, epigram, epitaph, epulaeryu, Etheree, fable, Fib, found poetry, ghazal, haiku, Italian sonnet, jueju, kennings poem, lanturne, limerick, lyric poetry, mathnawī, micropoetry, mini-monoverse, palindrome poetry, pantoum, Parallelismus Membrorum, poem cycle, quintilla, renga, riddle, rime couée, Schüttelreim, sedoka, septet, sestina, sonnet, tanka, tercet, terza rima, tongue twister poetry, triangular triplet, triolet, Tyburn, villanelle


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



Warm regards,

Mrs. Hudson