sherlock60 | Mrs. Hudson's Poetry Page: The Boscombe Valley Mystery

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.

Unfortunately there is no contribution from my housemaid Rachel this week. She has been very busy lately with her Women In Service Poetry Group, and I believe today she is holding a meeting titled ‘Brainstorming Your Ballad’. I am sure you will join me in wishing her well with that, and we will hopefully see her next time.

Instead, here is a new poetry form to try. I understand some distress was caused by my most recent choices of form and so this time I thought we should attempt something a little more flexible: free verse.

Shadow Poetry gives this definition:

Free Verse is an irregular form of poetry in which the content is free of traditional rules of versification, (freedom from fixed meter or rhyme).

In moving from line to line, the poet's main consideration is where to insert line breaks. Some ways of doing this include breaking the line where there is a natural pause, or at a point of suspense for the reader.

Here is my example poem:

Run free, little verse
Through 221B!
Over chemicals, a violin, a consulting detective…
Over moustachioed doctor, medical supplies (a bottle of brandy)...
Over curtains, over mantel, over…
(Great heavens)
An enormous pile of papers left in the middle of the floor.
You jump!
And trip!
And fall.
Yes, sadly, little verse—this is where the line
Breaks.

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, florette, found poetry, free verse, ghazal, haiku, In Memoriam stanza, Italian sonnet, jueju, kennings poem, lanturne, limerick, lyric poetry, mathnawī, micropoetry, mini-monoverse, musette, 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 Boscombe Valley Mystery in the comments on this post. I look forward to seeing them!

Warm regards,

Mrs. Hudson