Poetic Genius in Training

My daughter, 8, was writing poetry last night for Halloween. "Witches bats and spooky cats," she chanted.

"DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da," I echoed from the next room.

After some discussion we agreed that there were 7 beats in that line, I found it too hard to get across the idea of there being a pausing beat on the end. But, 7 is fine. "So then on the next line you want to try and make it 7 beats as well," I tell her.

"Or," she says, "You know, close to 7, like maybe 6 or 8."

"Or 7," I suggest.

"And then for the next lines," she goes on, ignoring my suggestion, "I could do like 5 beats and 5 beats...."

I guess she's kind of getting the idea. :) I want to get to the point where I get a call from her teacher asking me to explain what "trochaic tetrameter" means :)