sherlock60 | Mrs. Hudson's Poetry Page: The Missing Three-Quarter

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, is this week’s suggested poem to read—a suggestion inspired by the themes and subjects in this week's story. Hopefully you will enjoy the poem, and perhaps it 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.

In a London Drawingroom

By George Eliot

Note from Rachel: We here at Baker Street know that it is the quiet times the good doctor dreads most. The dangerous calm, he calls it, when Mr. Holmes looks out his window and sees nothing in the world worth remarking upon.

Thank you so much to Rachel. And I thought we could also have a go at a new poetry form: the list poem.

Betsy Franco gives this definition:

A list poem can be a list or inventory of items, people, places, or ideas. It often involves repetition. It can include rhyme or not. The list poem is usually not a random list; it is well thought out. The last entry in the list is usually a strong, funny, or important item or event.

Here are two more resources that may help you:

How to Write a Funny List Poem and ”List Poem” instructions & examples

And here is my example:

Good morning! You join us now for 221’s sports day
And already the games are underway.

Mr. Holmes wrestles with miscreants who’ve decided to call.
And then there is sprinting the length of the hall.
Shall we watch the slalom round each dining room chair?
Or boxing—lovely uppercut from the good doctor there.
Ah, of course—on to shooting! Which side is most able?
(Your commentator now reporting from under the table.)
Is it rugby now? There seems rather a scrum…
No! Final whistle—the police force has come!

And here is the score—the totted up bill:
Mrs. Hudson: £5, seventeen shillings and six.
Mr. Holmes and Doctor Watson: nil.

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, echo verse, 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, lies, limerick, line messaging, list poem, 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 Missing Three-Quarter in the comments on this post. I look forward to seeing them!

Warm regards,

Mrs. Hudson