Name______Date______

Couplets: Two line verses that rhyme

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Here are some examples from the poems we read today:

But the spotted giraffe Behold the duck

Has a neck and a half It does not cluck

Snail upon the wall The folk who live in backward town

Have you got it all Are inside out and upside down.

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What makes it a couplet? Without having two rhyming lines, it wouldn’t be a couplet. Circle the rhyming words in that make the lines a couplet:

The Months

January brings the snow,

makes our feet and fingers glow.

February brings the rain,

Thaws the frozen lake again.

March brings breezes loud and shrill,

stirs the dancing daffodil.

April brings the primrose sweet,

Scatters daises at our feet.

May brings flocks of pretty lambs,

Skipping by their fleecy damns.

June brings tulips, lilies, roses,

Fills the children's hand with posies.

Hot july brings cooling showers,

Apricots and gillyflowers.

August brings the sheaves of corn,

Then the harvest home is borne.

Warm september brings the fruit,

Sportsmen then begin to shoot.

Fresh October brings the pheasents,

Then to gather nuts is pleasent.

Dull November brings the blast,

Then the leaves are whirling fast.

Chill December brings the sleet,

Blazing fire, and Christmas treat.

Poem by: Sara Coleridge

What makes a couplet? Sometimes couplets are part of a bigger section of poetry. Find the two lines that make the couplets in these poems and write the rhyming words on the lines next to the section.

The Caterpillar

Brown and furry, Furry, Hurry

Caterpillar in a hurry;

Take your walk,

To the shady leaf or stalk.

May no toad spy you,

May the little birds pass by you;

Spin and die,

To live again a butterfly.

Poem by Christina G Rossetti

The folk who live in Backward Town

The folk who live in Backward Town

Are inside out and upside down.

They wear their hats inside their heads

And go to sleep beneath their beds.

They only eat the apple peeling

And they take their walks across the ceiling.

Poem by Mary Ann Hoberman

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Remember, a couplet could be hidden in a poem with many lines grouped together. Cross out the lines that do not belong to a couplet.

Firefly

A little light is going by,

Is going up to see the sky,

A little light with wings.

I never could have thought of it,

To have a little bug all lit

And made to go on wings.

Poem by Elizabeth Maddox Roberts