How I count syllables + Can I Count You? (Comic poem 126)

 

If she likes a big banana 8

She will quickly gulp it down 7

But if a new food disgusts her 8

She shows - throws it on the ground 7

When she chucks her milk bottle down 8

It's always a loud surprise 7

But my quick jumping up and down 8

Is good granny exercise 7

I always trust fate has a plan 8

So it's my fervent belief 7

Each day, each cry's a vital step 8

Signalling soon we'll see teeth 7

-ends-

I needed to know the maximum length at the start. It was eight syllables. No good having verses of nine and trying to crush them all into eight. If so you stay at nine or go up to ten. But if there's just one which is nine, and you can cut it, you settle on eight.

The last syllable which rhymes usually stays the same. However, I go through all the alternatives alphabetically. I might get a double rhyme (a rhyme half way along the line). 

Then you look at the other set of rhyming lines which alternate.

I started with several of the second and fourth lines being either six or eight syllables. I looked for alternative words to add or cut.

If I were doing a draft poem on a piece of paper I would write in the syllable count, sometimes in pencil so that it can be rubbed out.

I leave all the numbers in until I get to the end of the poem. That way, if I go off in the middle to make coffee, or answer the door or a phone, I don't have to recount to find where I was.

Useful Websites

Long article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre_(poetry)

Short article, hardly more than a definition:

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meter_(poetry)#:~:text=Fundamentals,of%20stressed%20and%20unstressed%20syllables.

Can I Count On You?

by Angela Lansbury

I count on my friends

I count enemies and strangers

I count what I'm thankful for

Requests, wedding lists and dangers

I count all the syllables, 

I make sure I am in range

I count how much I have to spend

I check my bills. I count my my change.

I never count my changes. I do no count my drafts.

I count ribbons and successes

Some researchers counted laughs

I was one line short - never mind

I count the days to the weekend, I count speakers, 

I count on doing something like meeters and greeters

I count on you not to notice

This is not iambic pentameters.