OBJECTIVE:
Writing COUPLETS is a great way to interact creatively with the photographs on piclits.com. A couplet is a form of verse with two lines that often rhyme, follow the same rhythm or meter, and offer a complete thought.

Shakespearean Sonnets end with two rhyming lines that form a couplet. Here is an example of the last two lines of Shakespearean Sonnet Sonnet III:

“But if thou live, remember’d not to be,
Die single, and thine image dies with thee.”

Our couplets on piclits.com need not be as profound or admonishing, but they should create a new way of thinking for the viewer of the photograph.

Here is a famous couplet by Alexander Pope who write in heroic couplets in his “Essay on Man” and “Essay on Criticism” in the 18th Century. Here, Pope captures the current familiar adage “be just shy of the cutting edge”:

“Be not the first by whom the new are tried,
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.”

Note how the rhythm of the poetic lines above is rising: bu-dump. “Be not”…”the first”…bu dump…bu dump. This is called iambic pentameter; iambic is rising and pentameter means five strong beats per line.

We will follow both the rhyming and meter in the couplets models above, select an amazing photo, think creatively, and generate a RHYMING, IAMBIC PENTAMETER COUPLET in the FREESTYLE mode on piclits.com.

MODEL PIC-LIT:

Notice how the couplet offers a complete thought, rhymes: “past and last,” and is written in iambic pentameter with a rising rhythm and five strong beats per line.

“I feel at home”…bu dump…bu dump.

GUIDED PRACTICE WRITING PROMPT:

1. Go to piclits.com
2. Sign in with your e-mail and password
3. Select a picture from the gallery of pictures
4. In FREESTYLE mode, write a RHYMING, IAMBIC PENTAMETER COUPLET to enhance the viewer’s understanding of the photograph.