FaithWriters.com-Christian Writers Forum

Gerald, I am so sorry for your loss. It prompted me to think of my own wife and her many sacrifices on my behalf and to write an acrostic for her. So I will follow Poe and lots of love-sick teenagers and write an embarrassing love poem. (Fortunately, my wife has a short name.) Darling, Darling, Donn...

Speaking of "judicial humor" as an oxymoron, the dissenting opinion in Porreco v. Porreco (the one about the cubic zirconium and the pre-nup) was written by a Justice on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Two other justices rebuked him for this in their opinions in the same case, including th...

I guess I could have posted this in several places, but since a couple of these (follow the link to see what "these" are) are limericks or several limericks linked together (not always with proper syllable counts), I thought I'd do it here. You won't be able to access the links on the page...

Acrostics may seem like poems for children and they do have utility, as Jan notes, for working with uninterested students. But they have also attracted serious poets. John Davies wrote 26 different acrostic poems (published together) in honor of Queen Elisabeth. Each spelled out Elisabetha Regina. Y...

I found a really great website today to help with scanning. It's called For Better For Verse. It is in a beta status right now, so I bet it will be really good when complete. When you go there, you will see a particular poem (A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal). Ignore that for the time being. Click on ov...

I have a minor quibble with their statement that feminine rhymes are rare in English poetry. I can't say one way or the other from personal knowledge. That is, I've never done any sort of statistical analysis nor have I read any—except perusing one on Spenser’s The Faerie Queene. I will say this: 1...

OK, Wikipedia isn't ALL bad. Since it is so much more easily accessible than any book I could recommend, I will sometimes recommend it if I personally know from other more reliable sources that what is in an article is fairly reliable. I think three Wikipedia articles are helpful here on the questio...

Wow! Those are great. My avatar used to be a pelican. Maybe I'll change back. Or maybe I can photoshop a pelican in front of the family.

While I work on my own homework, here's one I hear at the beach: (warning: rated PG) A marvelous bird is the pelican His mouth can hold more than his belly can He can hold in his beak Enough food for a week And I don't know how in the h--- he can I haven't counted the syllables, but it sounds like ...

Jan Worgul Akerson—
Of her cat you should not make fun.
If you do and write a clerihew and have a typo, too,
For payback, she’ll point it out to you.

OK, the first one is for someone who is famous AROUND HERE: Jan Worgul Ackerson Makes her Master Class lots of fun. I really would tip my hat If it weren’t for all those references to that darn cat. And now for someone really famous :shock: : William Henry Harrison Believed in United States expansio...

I found where I'd used the same word three times in one paragraph (and the word wasn't "the", either, LOL.) Good for you! While many modern "experts" teach elegant variation as a GOOD thing, it is a BAD thing. This from a--gasp :shock:--ACCURATE Wikipedia article: Elegant variat...

P.S. If you want to read some quatrains with virtually perfect and sustained meter (and a few very effective substatutions) written by "one of us," read this: The Heart of Lucinda Druell

Jan, taking you up on your offer to jump in with stuff, here are a few thoughts. I’m glad you mentioned meter because it is very important for quatrains since it is rare (but not unheard of) to see free verse quatrains. All other quatrains (blank or rhymed) must—by definition—be written in meter. He...

It's hard NOT putting in the opinionated words! (I actually like the first version better..shhhhh) Yes, it can be hard. You picked up on a kind of subjectiveness in your own writing that was more subtle than I even tried to discuss or illustrate. Interestingly, as a reader, I like the second versio...