Skeltonic Verse

Posted by Elizabeth Yetter Jul 13, 2007

Skeltonic verse, used by John Skelton, is a fun lesson in how to rhyme. The rhymes, or stanzas, are usually two to five lines in length, each line rhyming with the previous.

There are no rhyming schemes to follow and you don’t count syllables. Instead, the rhyme sort of tumbles and bounces about.

An example of a tumbling rhyme would be:

Which would be worse-

An unsung verse

Or a purple hearse?

The true joy of tumbling rhymes is that they can seemingly go on forever. For example, you could write one stanza with rhymes ending in “at” and create more stanzas with different rhymed endings. This in itself lends itself well to classroom settings where children can be encouraged to add their own stanza to a continuing poem.

In the home school setting, the entire family can get involved in creating a Skeltonic verse around a specific subject. The main topic of the verse can be anything, including what is uniquely special about your family or why it is important to be environmentally aware.

Children who are just learning to rhyme or who are learning basic phonics can also get into the fun of tumbling rhymes. For example, if the child is learning about words that end in “an,” have them write a list of words, such as can, fan, man, and ran. From the word list, a child can make up a simple rhyme.