HOW TO WRITE A COUPLET
THE RHYMING COUPLET CONCEPT
Over the months, there has been an increasing stirring in my spirit to put pen to paper and make an attempt to address the persistent failure of many great minds I know, to fully understand the potential of what is the simplest and most efficient tool in modern day poetry, which has led to the inability of many to construct it, thereby resulting in the composite inadequacies of most rhyming poetry pieces.
For every complete structure, several pieces (units/cells/atoms/blocks/monomers) come to party in unity to present the property properly and beautifully. In poetry we have such units, a variation of kin forming one perfect clan. Lines, stanza, rhymes, literary devices (figures of speech, idiomatic expressions), poetic devices, feet (syllables) for structures
For the intended purpose, I will dwell mainly on three of the above mentioned concepts, viz: lines, rhymes and feet. To adequately carry on a progressive flow between the writer and the reader, at this point, I have to define some of the concepts.
Couplet- A couplet is a pair of successive lines of verse, especially a pair of lines that rhyme and are of the same length.
Lines- The smallest monomer in a word is the alphabets, the smallest unit of a line or sentence is a word, the smallest block of a stanza is a line. Therefore a line is the simplest unit of a verse or stanza. The above definition of couplets clearly states that, a couplet is made of two lines that is (i.e) two lines that follow each other tentatively.
Depending on the number of lines in poetry, there is a count, namely;
1= Line
2= Couplet
3= Tercet
4= Quatrain
5= Quintet
6= Sextet
7= Septet
8= Octet…
Feet (foot s.)- A foot is a unit of meter, consisting of a combination of one unstressed (da) and one stressed (DA) syllable. More than one foot is referred to as feet. A foot is a measure of small groups of syllables otherwise called “iambs”. Therefore an iamb is a metrical foot which is a quantitative meter in poetry. Other forms of meter with two syllables are Trochee and Spondee, while those with three syllables are Anapest, Dactyl and Amphibrach, with differences in the location of the stressed and unstressed syllable.
For the purpose of this write up, we will limit it to the needful which is the iamb.
A line written in iambs is referred to as iambic.
The number of feet used in the line determines the count of such iambic lines.
1 iamb= foot (2 syllables da DA)
2 iambs= 2 feet (4 syllables da DA da DA)
3 iambs or iambic trimeter= 3 feet (6 syllables da DA da DA da DA)
4 iambs or iambic tetrameter= 4 feet (8 syllables da DA da DA da DA da DA)
5 iambs or iambic pentameter= 5 feet (10 syllables da DA da DA da DA da DA da DA)
Others are hexameter, heptameter e.t.c.
Rhymes- A rhyme is said to occur when two words sound the same when spoken. A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words, most often in the final syllable of lines, in poems and songs. When such happens in the final syllable, it is called End rhymes or tail rhyme, which is the major focus of couplet rhyming.
There are many types of rhymes;
- Perfect rhyme-(flight and sight, way and May, grave and brave)
Imperfect or near rhyme- a rhyme between a stressed and an unstressed syllable (wing and caring) - Weak or accentuated rhyme- rhyme between two sets of one or more unstressed syllables (hammer and carpenter)
- Semi-rhyme- a rhyme with an extra syllable on one word (dent and renting)
- Forced rhyme- a rhyme with an imperfect match in sound (one and thumb)
The other types of rhymes would be overlooked in this edition. The end rhyme is what we need.
Recall that, a couplet is said to be a pair (2) of successive lines, written in equal feet (syllables) using end rhymes. We can attempt to write a couplet therefore using the knowledge so far. I will write this using an iambic pentameter 5 feet (10 syllables)
Example;
A couplet is a wonderful asset
An ageless friend, a tool for the wise poet
The above example did justice to the couplet, check for end rhymes (asset and poet), lines (2), feet (5 per line); all good?
Great, let us proceed.
We will, on a final note, give a few merits of rhyming couplets and then, try to attempt to make light the burdensome decoding of themes.
Merits of writing good couplets
- Couplet helps in writing beautiful, apt and laconic poetry
- It presents your work in a neat, applaud-able way
- It is the basis for writing good lyrical content for poetry and songs
- It can be used to buttress or explain the whole theme after misdirection in the whole poem. In the case of envoys or refrains
- Couplets were used by great poets, like Williams Shakespeare, the Shakespearan sonnet makes use of couplets to make its 8 line stanzas
Bonus
What is a theme?
A theme is a unifying, dominant idea of a thesis, text or paper and generally art. It is the central idea upon which the discourse is built on, the concept upon which a painting is done, the bedrock of the structure. Understanding these concepts is instrumental in the presentation of that work of art or the literary idea to give an appealing feel, texture, mood and sense. The most important way to achieve the de-conceptualization of a central idea is proper interpretation, which can be done using the following easy steps I call FAST-ACT
Focus on the theme, pass the idea around in your mind and chew it in your mouth for as much time as the time you have can afford. This is what I call tenderizing the tough skin of the concept.
A little background research on the idea. Here the internet, the dictionary, books, opinion of people around you can help trick the bogus concept to sleep in your bed and embrace you dearly.
Set character for the theme- deciding the stance you want to develop and the mood, tone and aggression of the persona, can help to further deliver the ruse to your muse on a platter of gold.
Try putting down a list of sub-concepts that goes hand in hand with the idea. Words, expressions, metaphors, clichés, idioms, phrases.
Attempt symbolism-make a figurative representation to place your ideas on. This will help to reference the theme concept and help the writer and the reader of the subsequent art piece to have a more vivid representation etched on their minds.
Concentrate all resources on the idea as your work at hand. (figures, rhymes, structure, lexis) among other things.
Throw in your best lines, throw your finest art, taste the imminent victory.
N.B- A theme is not the title, fixing the character stance can help you affix a title under the central theme, which you will be writing on.
Disclaimer
This write up is a product of the author’s research effort, purposely aimed at improving the writing culture of brilliant minds and to sharpen the creative dexterity of the ocean of potential waiting to be found across Nigeria, Africa and the world at large. Sources were credible to a large extent and all or any semblance to the work or works of other authors is a product of perspective convergence.
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