sherlock60 | Mrs. Hudson's Poetry Page: The Three Students

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.

And here, courtesy of my housemaid Rachel, are this week’s suggested poems to read—suggestions inspired by the themes and subjects in this week's story. Hopefully you will enjoy the poems, and perhaps they may give you some ideas for a poem of your own or allow you to look at Dr. Watson's story in a new way.

University

By Karl Shapiro

Note from Rachel: This poem highlights the prejudiced social structure underlying old-fashioned university life, more scandalous, corrupt, and harmful than the incident in this week's mystery. (Warning: the poem includes blunt description of racism and antisemitism).

Art & Craft

By Robin Coste Lewis

Note from Rachel: I cannot help but wonder whether students like Daulat Ras had to fight their way through a different kind of academic pressure - the temptation to conceal part of their talent in order to conform to the biases of the people around them. I imagine that even Sherlock Holmes might once have felt, as a young student, the urge to hide his light under a bushel in order to avoid the resentment of his peers.

Thank you so much to Rachel. And here is my suggested form to revisit this week: the abecedarian. (The link takes you back to a previous poetry page.)

But you do not have to use that form. 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, blitz poem, blues stanza, bref double, Burns stanza, call and response, chastushka, cinquain, circular poetry, clerihew, colour poems, compound word verse, concrete poetry, Cornish verse, curtal sonnet, diamante, doggerel, double dactyl, ekphrasis, elegiac couplet, elegiac stanza, elfje, englyn, epigram, epistle, epitaph, epulaeryu, Etheree, fable, Fib, florette, found poetry, free verse, ghazal, haiku, In Memoriam stanza, Italian sonnet, jueju, kennings poem, lanturne, limerick, line messaging, lyric poetry, mathnawī, micropoetry, mini-monoverse, musette, palindrome poetry, pantoum, Parallelismus Membrorum, poem cycle, quintilla, renga, rhyming alliterisen, 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 Three Students in the comments on this post. I look forward to seeing them!

Warm regards,

Mrs. Hudson