Rhyme and Meter

People don’t usually think about rhyme and meter in prose. They are standard poetic devices used to memorable effect in poetry. In prose not so much.

Rhyme and meter make whatever one writes more easily remembered. Things like “Jack felt a lack and went right back to get his wallet.” This is a much more memorable sentence than “Jack turned around and went up the street for his wallet” You have to see my point even if you don’t like the lines.

Meter is also useful in prose. Read Hamlet and you’ll find a lot of what is called “blank verse” which is prose. But Shakespeare’s has meter to it, a rhythm of speech, that is incomparable. Think about using that if you’re writing prose. Read The Great Gatsby, or Catcher in the Rye. If you shift your eye just a little bit, they have great poetic effect. They say so much in only a short space.

Poetry and prose differ only in format. Read Allen Ginsberg’s huge poem Howl, which reads like prose. Read Jack Kirourak, whose On the Road, which reads like an exquisite poem. There is a rumor that he wrote it in one long blast on a roll of paper towel, but I think the truth is that he crafted it carefully.

Check this out: “I had nothing to do and my whole life to do it in.”

Or:

I had nothing to do

And my whole life to do it in.

Scans very nicely.