The rhythms and imagery of childhood verses have inspired poets from Robert Louis Stevenson to Elizabeth Bishop. Now it’s your turn For most of us, our first exposure to the joys of verse was when we ...

"I only like poems that rhyme." Or, more drastically: "If it doesn't rhyme, it's not a poem." These declarations of allegiance to end-rhyme sound traditional or even daringly reactionary—fearlessly ...

Written in the stars is the poem: “Stars above in the night, hanging there, oh so high. Look at them, they shine so bright, punching through the ink black sky.” A rhyme scheme is when we look at the ...

An art less martial ... Members of the "Last Post to the Pals" march across the Somme battlefields, France, June 2006. Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA "Arms, and the man I sing" wrote Virgil, or ...