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Let’s listen to some brilliant songs and then write a poem with real focus on rhyming for effect!

  • MUSIC FOCUS: Ayra Starr, Coldplay, Charli XCX, Icona Pop, Louis Dunford, Lucy Spraggan, The Chainsmokers & Wilkinson.
  • ACTIVITY FOCUS: Write a poem.

ACTIVITY 1

Read the lyrics below. Fill the gaps with words that rhyme with the nearby words in bold. The couplet in Avril Lavigne’s ‘Sk8er Boi’ has been left completely to your imagination; you have to fill in both rhyming words. You may know some of the songs, but the point isn’t necessarily to choose the correct rhymes, just to have fun thinking of words that might fit!

1. Louis Dunford:

“As I walk these streets alone / through this borough I call _______________________‘

2. The Chainsmokers & Coldplay:

“I’ve been reading books of old
The legends and the _______________________
Achilles and his gold
Hercules and his gifts
Spider-Man’s control
And Batman with his _______________________“

3. Lucy Spraggan:

“All the stuff, I know right now
It came from messing up most of my twenties
It’s changed for now and I hope it lasts
I spent most of my life feeling quite _______________________“

4. Icona Pop & Charli XCX:

“You’re on a different road, I’m in the Milky Way
You want me down on Earth, but I am up in _______________________“

5. Ayra Starr:

“Me no get the time for the hate and the bad energy

Got my mind on my money

Make you dance like Poco Lee

Steady green like _______________________“

6. Avril Lavigne:

“He wanted her
She’d never tell
Secretly she wanted him as well
But all of her friends
Stuck up their _______________________
They had a problem with his baggy _______________________“

7. Louis Dunford:

“I’m not making a killing, _______________________
But I’m making a living and that’s enough…

I’m on my way home in the backseat of a cab

And I’m talking with Bossman while I eat my kebab…“

8. Wilkinson:

“Even though the dancing’s done

Don’t worry, ’cause the night is _______________________

Who cares where we go?

We’re ready for the afterglow

Someone hold the sunlight back

‘Cause we want this night to last

Smoke and lasers

Love and _______________________”

ACTIVITY 2

Watch the videos and check your answers 🙂

ACTIVITY 3

Make a list of words that you feel you might need to write about a day at school: the things you see, the things you do, the experiences you have.

Then, try coming up with interesting rhymes for the most important of those words!!

Once you’ve had a think, look to the bottom of the page for some ideas that our Sound of Pen students have already come up with.

ACTIVITY 4

Write a poem about one of/some of/all of the parts of a school day (real or imagined) listed below. It doesn’t have to be a long, connected piece, you could simply write a couplet (two lines of poetry) about each different moment. Look back to the lyrics above for inspiration.

When writing your poem. make sure to focus on making considered decision about rhyme and meter. The whole poem might rhyme and be of a regular rhythm – or perhaps you’ll choose to have some moments which rhyme, and some which don’t. Read the notes about rhyme and meter just a little further down this page before making final decisions about which moments will or will not rhyme.

  1. TELL YOUR READER/AUDIENCE WHERE YOU ARE… (as inspired by Louis Dunford)
  2. TELL YOUR READER/AUDIENCE WHAT YOU’RE DOING IN LESSONS… (as inspired by The Chainsmokers & Coldplay)
  3. TELL YOUR READER/AUDIENCE WHAT YOU’RE REALLY THINKING ABOUT… (as inspired by Lucy Spraggan)
  4. TELL YOUR READER/AUDIENCE WHAT YOU FEEL ABOUT THE PEOPLE TRYING TO GUIDE YOU… (as inspired by Icona Pop & Charli XCX)
  5. TELL YOUR READER/AUDIENCE WHAT YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR ATTITUDE TO LIFE… (as inspired by Ayra Starr)
  6. TELL YOUR READER/AUDIENCE WHAT YOU FEEL ABOUT SOMETHING YOU NOTICE AT SCHOOL… (as inspired by Avril Lavigne)
  7. TELL YOUR READER/AUDIENCE ABOUT SOMEONE YOU MEET/SOMEONE YOU TALK TO ON WAY HOME… (as inspired by Louis Dunford)
  8. TELL YOUR READER/AUDIENCE ABOUT WHAT YOU DO AFTER SCHOOL… (as inspired by Wilkinson)

You don’t have to write a poem with a clear narrative, but here’s an example of how to do that if you want to try:

Rhyme

  1. Regular ABAB rhyme might feel dull: too predictable
  2. Regular ABAB rhyme could, however, create a sense of safety and security.
  3. Rhyme could reinforce the idea that poet or speaker is trying to bring order to a chaotic world
  4. Lack of rhyme may create an effect of freedom and openness.
  5. Irregular rhyme scheme might represent speaker’s rejection of the rules.
  6. The words you choose to rhyme might offer a sense of playfulness – a sense of fun.

Meter

  1. Iambic pentameter: an iamb is two syllables (one stressed, followed by one unstressed). A line of iambic pentameter has 5 of these iambs. So: 10 syllables in total.
  • Iambic tetrameter: an iamb is two syllables (one stressed, followed by one unstressed). A line of iambic tetrameter has 5 of these iambs. So: 10 syllables in total.
  • Dactylic dimeter: a dactyl is made up of three syllables. Dimeter means there are two dactyls in the line of poetry. So: 6 syllables in total.
  • Hexameter: a line of poetry with 12 syllables in total.
  • Free verse: poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular rhythm
    • free verse could represent stream of consciousness
    • lack of regular rhythm or rhyme may create an effect of freedom and openness.
    • free verse may  represent the speaker’s rejection of the rules.

Some vocab and rhyme ideas that our students came up with: