Thread: Cadence or flow of a poem

I guess I am stuck in the rhyming of a poem. Is it necessary to rhyme? Is it called something else if it doesn't? I have trouble finding the flow of some of the poetry I read. It throws me off the meaning trying to catch how it should read. I would really like to hear the authors read so I can understand "how" to read them. I don't really know what my question is here but if someone could give me some insight, I'd appreciate it.

Hi Shirly, I'm certainly no expert but maybe these are the types of poems throwing you off:


Blank verse
Poetry that is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. Blank verse is often unobtrusive and the iambic pentameter form often resembles the rhythms of ordinary speech. Shakespeare wrote most of his plays in blank verse.

Free verse (also vers libre)
Poetry composed of either rhymed or unrhymed lines that have no set fixed metrical pattern or expectation.

Here is a link to the website the above excerpts are from, which is a good place to explore the different types of poetry.

Poetry Terms

There is no rule on writing a nonrhyming poem. Unless you've count the definitions that Ms. Gumby has posted. I was on another site which is a poetry site called Original Poetry. There's all sorts of poets doing different kinds of poetry.

There are no rules to rhyming.

Don't get hung up on rhyme or rhythm. Anytime you stumble when reading or writing poetry, you have made a mistake (and if you're unable to read a poem without getting caught on rhyming, then the poet has made a mistake).

Let you're rhyming be natural, as with your cadence.

You mentioned you wished you could hear poets read. You can. Look up your favorite poets on youtube, and you might find something. If not, listen to spoken word artists (I can recommend a few who are slightly removed from the typical "slam" genre).

Whatever you do, make your words and images the center of the poem, not the structure. If structure is conflicting with what you're trying to say (or inhibiting it), abolish structure.

Ben