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PoetryMagnumOpus :: Reference Section :: Verse Forms ******under construction****** :: Universal Verse Forms
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II. Couplet - The Open Couplet
by Tinker on Mon Jan 28, 2008 9:24 am
Couplet Construction
An open couplet is a rhymed two line unit that is enjambed. The end of the frame is not closed but the subject is carried forward into the subsequent couplet without pause at the end of the line. This form was introduced to English poetry by Geoffrey Chaucer and continued to gain popularity into the 17th century when it was nicknamed “riding rhyme”. It is particularly suited to narratives and didactic verse.
Even as new occasion appears?
Or shall we tie ourselves for certain years
To any service, Or to any place?
For it behooves ere that into the race
We enter, to resolve first hereupon.
Now surely brother (said the Fox anon)
---Sir Edmund Spenser from Mother Hubbard’s Tale 1591 L118-L124
An open couplet is a rhymed two line unit that is enjambed. The end of the frame is not closed but the subject is carried forward into the subsequent couplet without pause at the end of the line. This form was introduced to English poetry by Geoffrey Chaucer and continued to gain popularity into the 17th century when it was nicknamed “riding rhyme”. It is particularly suited to narratives and didactic verse.
Even as new occasion appears?
Or shall we tie ourselves for certain years
To any service, Or to any place?
For it behooves ere that into the race
We enter, to resolve first hereupon.
Now surely brother (said the Fox anon)
---Sir Edmund Spenser from Mother Hubbard’s Tale 1591 L118-L124
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Registration date: 2008-01-16