Rhythm
If you got no rhythm, then you got no rhyme
So to make it work, find a beat and chime!
Each line should have roughly the same syllables; and they MUST have identical emphases. Notice the above verse: stress is placed on the third and sixth syllables. The only true way to test your verse is to have someone else read it aloud to you. If they screw up, then maybe your chosen emphasis words aren't obvious. Choosing to stress words like the and and seldom works because readers are used to giving such words little attention, much less emphasis.
The cat in the hat observed a rat
Who ate and drank from a silver hat
The verse above consists of lines with identical syllables, but a dissimilar emphasis. Why does it still sound okay? Because in the top line, syllable four happens to be the, which is so short it is scarcely even there. Drank in the second line is the automatic choice for emphasis, leading to the phrase from a, which is viewed by the average reader as unworthy of emphasis. They go right to SILver with their stressing and the rhyme works nicely.
Rhyme
This one should be obvious, but you've surely read otherwise good poems that tripped over an occasional wannabe rhyme.
I danced with a boy
Who played with toys
The above is acceptable, as most readers understand the need to pluralize, but this should not be overdone, because it stands out. Overuse of singular to plural in rhyme makes one look amateur.
If I had a thousand dimes
I could pay a thousand fines.
Dimes = fines, cats = backs, run = one, good = food, etc.
I see that too often. It stands out, and, I might add, it reeks. The greats even stoop to this on occasion. In my opinion, if you absolutely must use such a pseudo-rhyme in your poem, use it only once!
