How to Write Your Best Poetry
Focus on themes or ideas that resonate with you., Try more challenging forms., Play with meter.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Focus on themes or ideas that resonate with you.
Many of the most successful poems will center on a specific theme or idea, rather than a general theme or idea.
Though there are no limits on the theme or idea, it should be specific to you and present challenging, difficult, disturbing, compelling, and meaningful subject matter.
Tackling a big idea, such as death or mortality, from a unique, honest perspective will often allow you to create a better poem.When you sit down to write a poem, you should ask yourself, “Why am I compelled to write about this subject or topic?” “What am I trying to convey to the reader?” “How can I present a unique perspective on a familiar theme or idea?” One option is to use one theme or idea to create a series of linked poems, where you use a different formal approach in each poem to explore the theme.
This could allow you to generate interesting content and play around with the theme using different forms or approaches. , Selecting a form for your poem, such as free verse, rhyming couplets, a sonnet, or a chance poem, can help to focus your writing.
Trying new and challenging forms can push you to create better poetry.Sometimes a certain form can act as a frame from your poem and serve as an organizing principle for your random thoughts.
The restrictions of a certain form can also force you to create descriptions that fit the structure, and perhaps come up with ideas you may not have created on your own.
You can try your hand at several challenging forms, such as the sestina, the pantoum or the Spenserian sonnet.You can also challenge yourself by doing writing experiments, where you try to write poetry within guidelines or limitations.
You can find writing experiments by the great Bernadette Mayer online: http://www.writing.upenn.edu/library/Mayer-Bernadette_Experiments.html.
Some poets will deviate from their chosen form, usually at the very end of the poem, as a way to flex their abilities as a poet.
Often, this is done only once and to the maximum effect.
You can review a list of poetic structures to find forms that could make your poetry more engaging and unique. , The use of meter, a pattern of stressed and unstressed words, can actually be useful in poetry as a way to create rhythm.
Often, the use of meter can be an alternative way to create interesting sounds in your poetry instead of rhyme.
Meter can be broken into four types based on where the stressed and unstressed words are in a line: iamb meter, trochee meter, dactyl meter, and anapest meter.A famous example of iamb meter is Shakespeare’s "Sonnet 18”, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” The first syllable, “Shall I”, is unstressed, and the second syllable, “compare”, is stressed.
An example of trochee meter can be found in Longfellow’s “Song of Hiawatha”: “By the shores of Gitche Gumee/ By the shining Big-Sea-Water”.
The first syllable, “By the”, is stressed, and the second syllable, “Shores of”, is unstressed.
An example of dactyl meter can be found in Browning’s “The Lost Leader”: “Just for a riband to stick in his coat”.
The first syllable, “Just for” is stressed, and the second and third syllables are unstressed, “a riband to stick in his coat”.
An example of anapest meter can be found in “Peeve’s Song” from Harry Potter: “Oh, Potter, you rotter, oh, what have you done”.
The first two syllables are unstressed and the third syllable is stressed. -
Step 2: Try more challenging forms.
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Step 3: Play with meter.
Detailed Guide
Many of the most successful poems will center on a specific theme or idea, rather than a general theme or idea.
Though there are no limits on the theme or idea, it should be specific to you and present challenging, difficult, disturbing, compelling, and meaningful subject matter.
Tackling a big idea, such as death or mortality, from a unique, honest perspective will often allow you to create a better poem.When you sit down to write a poem, you should ask yourself, “Why am I compelled to write about this subject or topic?” “What am I trying to convey to the reader?” “How can I present a unique perspective on a familiar theme or idea?” One option is to use one theme or idea to create a series of linked poems, where you use a different formal approach in each poem to explore the theme.
This could allow you to generate interesting content and play around with the theme using different forms or approaches. , Selecting a form for your poem, such as free verse, rhyming couplets, a sonnet, or a chance poem, can help to focus your writing.
Trying new and challenging forms can push you to create better poetry.Sometimes a certain form can act as a frame from your poem and serve as an organizing principle for your random thoughts.
The restrictions of a certain form can also force you to create descriptions that fit the structure, and perhaps come up with ideas you may not have created on your own.
You can try your hand at several challenging forms, such as the sestina, the pantoum or the Spenserian sonnet.You can also challenge yourself by doing writing experiments, where you try to write poetry within guidelines or limitations.
You can find writing experiments by the great Bernadette Mayer online: http://www.writing.upenn.edu/library/Mayer-Bernadette_Experiments.html.
Some poets will deviate from their chosen form, usually at the very end of the poem, as a way to flex their abilities as a poet.
Often, this is done only once and to the maximum effect.
You can review a list of poetic structures to find forms that could make your poetry more engaging and unique. , The use of meter, a pattern of stressed and unstressed words, can actually be useful in poetry as a way to create rhythm.
Often, the use of meter can be an alternative way to create interesting sounds in your poetry instead of rhyme.
Meter can be broken into four types based on where the stressed and unstressed words are in a line: iamb meter, trochee meter, dactyl meter, and anapest meter.A famous example of iamb meter is Shakespeare’s "Sonnet 18”, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” The first syllable, “Shall I”, is unstressed, and the second syllable, “compare”, is stressed.
An example of trochee meter can be found in Longfellow’s “Song of Hiawatha”: “By the shores of Gitche Gumee/ By the shining Big-Sea-Water”.
The first syllable, “By the”, is stressed, and the second syllable, “Shores of”, is unstressed.
An example of dactyl meter can be found in Browning’s “The Lost Leader”: “Just for a riband to stick in his coat”.
The first syllable, “Just for” is stressed, and the second and third syllables are unstressed, “a riband to stick in his coat”.
An example of anapest meter can be found in “Peeve’s Song” from Harry Potter: “Oh, Potter, you rotter, oh, what have you done”.
The first two syllables are unstressed and the third syllable is stressed.
About the Author
Natalie Gutierrez
Specializes in breaking down complex home improvement topics into simple steps.
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