Nifty Assignment: Poetry Form Checker

Limericks, sonnets, haiku, and other forms of poetry each follow prescribed patterns that give the number of lines, the number of syllables on each line, and a rhyme scheme. For example, limericks are five lines long; the first, second, and fifth lines each have eight syllables and rhyme with each other; and the third and fourth lines each have five syllables and rhyme with each other. 1The Poetry Form Checker CS1 assignment (http://www.cs.ubc.ca/wccce/Nifty/2019/Poetry/) has students write code that reads poems from files and determines whether they are properly formed, including having the right number of syllables and the proper rhyme scheme for a particular poetry form such as a limerick or a sonnet.We specify a file format for describing poetry forms, including the number of syllables on each line and the rhyme scheme. The assignment makes use of the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/cmudict), which provides word pronunciations using a plain-text format that includes syllabic stress levels.This assignment is suitable for the last assignment in a CS1 course, and has students manipulate files, dictionaries, lists, and strings.