Often in poetry we have to find ways to say things in a different ways because of rhyme, rhythm, or complexity. So our challenge for this week is to find two different ways to say things in verse form.
EXAMPLES:
An elegant lady in a sequined gown
A pretty girl in a beaded frock
A fragrant rose,
A smelly red flower
A frock and a gown are the same thing, as are beads and sequins, but they conjure different images and work differently in a line of poetry, as do smelly and fragrant.
Sometimes elegant works, and other times pretty. Sometimes lady works, and sometimes girl.
Pure lily growing on the mountain
Fair rose blooming in garden
Here, lilies and roses are flowers as mountains and gardens are both locations with soil.
But the image is different…
A rose deliberately nurtured in a garden made for the purpose of breeding flowers. Hence we see a beautiful girl well taken care of, finding life easy.
A pure lily growing in the mountain is a wild beauty, struggling with life’s rocky terrain and yet remaining pure.
THE CHALLENGE:
Write a poem of four lines (rhyming or not).
Let the first two verses state an opposing idea in the second two.
Use similar words.
Explain the difference
EXAMPLE:
Pure lily growing on the mountain
Let me tease your immaculate petals
Fair rose blooming in garden
I shall pluck your crimson petals
Plucking is violent as tease is gentle, but both are touch; crimson suggests blood while immaculate suggest purity but both describe color
Written by: Fr. Albert Jungers and Kukogho Iruesiri Samson