Write a Valentine Poem That Rhymes

Be original and write your own funny but endearing Valentine's poem. You'll want to aim for a poem that flows well and more importantly, makes the object of your affection think you're the most intelligent, creative and downright gorgeous person they've ever known!

Steps

1. Choose your Valentine. This technique can be used on anybody: long-term partners, someone you've been dating for a few weeks, or someone you've got a secret crush on. The main thing is to make it rhyme and to include plenty of compliments.
2. Change the old to new. The old cliché of 'roses are red, violets are blue' is too retro and not so original. Nevertheless, it's a great basis for starting your own poem with; you just need to give it a modern twist. For example: 
   # 'Lilies are white, Daffodils are yella, I lie in bed at night, Feeling smug you're my fella!' etc.
   # You can pick any flower and any colour you like.
3. Find the rhyme. You can make anything rhyme; it's not as hard as it sounds. Just think of a sentence you might want to write to your loved one such as: 'You always make me smile'. Then just go through the alphabet trying out every letter that could rhyme with smile, for example: dial, file, I'll, mile, Nile, pile and so forth, until you find something that could begin to make sense in the third sentence. After working that out, build your next line around finishing with that word. For example:
   #'You always make me smile, When I'm down you come 'round, Your number I just dial, You lift my chin off the ground.'
4. Keep to the same theme. The theme should flow smoothly and not jolt from one metaphor to another without a smooth transition. For example, don't talk about how great your love is in bed on the one line, and how lucky you are to breathe the same air as them on the next. To avoid such a disjointed approach, look for ways to keep concepts together over at least two lines at a time. 
5. Decide your own length. There's no word limit, and once you get in the swing of things you might want to write pages and pages of witty yet touching prose, or you can just stick with four lines.
   # Note: Shorter versions are advised if you're in a new relationship or you're being a 'secret admirer' – you don't want to scare away with all the hundreds of obsessive things you've noticed about them while you were spying or making out!
   
6. Be genuine, not poetically perfect. You don't have to be clever or try and give Shakespeare a run for his money. As long as the poem sounds like you wrote it, then that's great. For instance, if you and your partner spend your time going clubbing and eating take-out food, lying around with one another and having a laugh, it might be a bit weird if you start mentioning how the sun shines on everything now you've met them, or that your heart beats to the sound of a thousand drums when you're together, etc. Keep it real.
7. Don't get hung up on rhyming. Not everything has to strictly rhyme. You're not doing English literature, you're just writing a love poem. And with that, enjoy writing it!

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