Inspired by Nature is a themed Croak to entertain you with some of our favourite artwork based on nature and the outdoors. We hope it will stimulate you to get creative and produce something yourself. If you do and would like to share them with us, please post them on our Facebook page, Twitter account, or email us at info@froglife.org
This months feature has been written by Rebecca Neal our Conservation Youth Worker on the Peterborough Green Pathways project, funded by BBC Children in Need.
Its an odd name, but blank verse is simply a type of poetry which doesn’t rhyme and has a “de-dum de-dum, de-dum, de-dum, de-dum” rhythm. The official name for this type of rhythm is iambic pentameter which means it has 10 syllables and the stress is on syllables 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 (I have italiscised the stressed syllables in my example below). Apparently, the ability to hear these stresses and rhythms in words and poetry splits the nation like marmite; you can either do it, or you can’t. It is probably the most common form of poetry and was used by many famous writers including Shakespeare. You can write as many lines as you like; John Milton wrote a truly epic poem in blank verse called Paradise Lost which is over 10,000 lines long! Here is a slightly shorter poem about an experience I had mixing children and amphibians as I regularly do on my Green Pathways sessions:
It leapt an urgent death-croak from my hand
Right at the young boy’s open mouth it seemed
The whole group jumped unconsciously in mime
And someone screamed out loud hysteric’ly
It landed upside down then hopped away
The scared and fascinated followed suit
Why not have a go at a nature-inspired blank verse poem and send them to us on Twitter @froglifers, tell us on our Facebook page or email us info@froglife.org