Why College Poetry is Hardcore

Poetry has never been my thing, though I've been learning since last semester's creative writing crash course. I'm sure all these lessons in Poetry on meter and form and all the structural rules will be useful one day if I decide to really get into the stuff, but right now I'm honestly rather bored with the class.

But not completely. Today's lesson was on rhyme - end rhyme, slant rhyme, eye rhyme, mosaic rhyme, all kinds of different rhyme. You would not believe how many different types there actually are. A dozen, minimum, I didn't keep a count. But none of that is what I'm going to remember Form and Theory of Poetry  for later on. I'm probably always going to think of the video she played for us:

 

It gets interesting around the three minute mark, but watch the whole thing because it does build on what came before.

I already liked this song; "Lose Yourself" is one of the only rap songs I would say I like, but I have about a million times more respect for how well written it is now. We continued class afterward by scanning the lyrics where the video stopped and the sheer amount of slant rhyme and assonance in a handful of lines is ridiculous.

 

For comparison if you've never heard this song.

 

I've tried my hand at this sort of thing before, and while you do sort of pick up a knack for it as you go it's no picnic. I can't imagine getting every other word to rhyme with something else like this.