The Beatles Effect (How Not To Write, part 4)

I like The Beatles. They’re fun. Sometimes they were good. And they were the kings of the bad rhyme. The Beatles effect is what happens when you care about rhyme so much that it destroys your poem.

I don’t have anything against rhyme. As long as it’s good. Don’t rhyme “-ing” forms, don’t rhyme “be” and “me”, “you” and “do”. If you cannot find better rhymes, and you still like very traditional forms of poetry, write blank verse. If Milton wrote Paradise Lost in blank verse, it should be good enough for you.

¿Estás leyendo esto en español? Al español el verso blanco no le pega tanto como al inglés, pero antes que rimar participios e infinitivos, siempre será mejor la rima asonante. El romancero tradicional le da cien mil vueltas a las rimas facilonas.