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QuillOak

Free Verse · Poems About Mom

Grandma's Rules

by The QuillOak Editors

1She had the softest hands and hardest rules:

2no hats at the table, thank-you notes by Sunday,

3and always, always room for one more plate.

4I've kept the rules. I'm working on the hands.

Original poem © QuillOak — personal sharing is permitted.

Quick facts

Poem
Grandma's Rules
Poet
The QuillOak Editors
Length
4 lines
Form
Free Verse, Short Poems
Themes
Poems About Mom, Family, Funny, Short

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape
4 lines · one 4-line stanza
End rhyme
No regular perfect end rhyme. The poem may still be using slant rhyme, assonance, or internal echo, which this check does not score.
Line length
Mostly 10-syllable lines (pentameter length).
The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a free verse, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake

Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Original QuillOak text. Personal sharing is permitted; other reuse requires permission.

Author record
The QuillOak Editorstoday
Source record
QuillOak originalGrandma's Rules, authored for QuillOak by The Quillery
Display decision
Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record
Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint
SHA-256 d7beb090d5ecbc13…
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
Jurisdiction-specific, never a worldwide claimRights policyReport a text or rights issue

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