The nursery rhyme study was unable to "evaluate the severity of the episodes of violence", the authors say. "For instance, 'Here comes the chopper to chop off your head' (Oranges and Lemons), or a ...

Poetry is great but everyone thinks it has to rhyme. Well I’m here to tell you it does not. In fact, at times, Rhyme can get annoying. It creeps into your head And that can get boring. It fills me ...

Rhyme thrives at both poles of literature. It is the material of a greeting card—“Roses are red / Violets are blue / Sugar is sweet / And so are you”—and the high-tragic language of Racine. Rhyme ...

For Jeremy Bentham, a philosopher, poetry was simply writing that “fails” to reach the end of the line. For W.H. Auden, a poet, poetry was that which “makes nothing happen”. Arnold Bennett, a writer, ...

Every poem has structural features that have a bearing on the way the poem sounds or what it means. To comment on the structure of a poem is just the same as commenting on its language – you notice ...

Our article charting the decline of rhyme in modern verse (“Feeling averse”, May 31st) touched a nerve with readers, some of whom are budding poets it seems. Here is a small selection of their ...