- Apr 25, 2022
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This is so I don't repeat myself when writing reviews of people's poetry on yonder forum overmuch. Yours truly has been to college for English writing and actually has published 4 poems. Checketh the username also. Yo? I love poetry.
If you're just writing poems for fun, you may feel free to ignore me, but if you genuinely want to improve your writing, read on and profit.
1. Do not capitalize the first letter of every line in your poem. Just because Microsoft Word does it automatically, that doesn't mean it's a good idea. It makes you look lazy and an incompetent poet. Only capitalize:
-The first letter of each sentence
-Proper names
-Words you want to emphasize.
2. Unless you are using a traditional form such as a sonnet, haiku, haibun, or limerick, the best poems do not rhyme. Rhyming makes your poem seem silly and trite; the best poems have sonic variety for each of the lines, and that includes the line endings. More importantly, you need to pick the words that best convey your ideas and your points. Using a rhyme scheme encourages you to blunt that in favor of finding soundalike words.
Poetry is about picking the right words, spacing, literary devices, capitalization and punctuation, sounds, and meter and rhythm to convey an emotional experience. If you must use a rhyme scheme, change it up every so often. Don't fall into the abab cdcd efef or aabb ccdd eeff rhyme scheme for your whole poem. Change the scheme to emphasize an important point or to lead your reader into a new feeling.
3. Use a variety of poetic meters. Don't fall into a sing-song rhythm - that's a song, not a poem.
This stanza is not very effective. Let's try something that makes us look like a pro.
Meter is one of the best ways to convey emotion in a poem. Long lines convey fear, especially if you drop the spaces between words. Staccato lines are for sad and depressing poems like this one. Happiness and contentment are conveyed by slowing down the tempo, dropping the sense of urgency and letting us sink into the moment. Anger is conveyed through capital letters for emphasis and/or italics.
4. Poetry is a highly flexible form of language. Don't be afraid to change things up and experiment with different versions of the same poem.
Honestly, you're not going to know whether putting the main point of your poem in the middle of it in all caps with two periods on each side is going to work until you try it. The first draft of your poem should just be you getting your ideas out of your head in whatever form they take, and then go ahead experimenting with as many meter adjustments, punctuation ideas, and words until your points and the emotion behind them is conveyed clearly to your intended audience. Save different experiments as different Microsoft Word (or Libre Office Writer) documents. That way you have them all and can select the best one.
5. Cut unnecessary words and phrases that aren't necessary to convey the point of the poem, the main emotional truth you want the audience to walk away with. Use the absolute minimum words needed.
Poetry is not a place to muddy the waters by talking about more than one rhetorical point in one poem or including multiple emotions for the sake of including them. If you have more than one point to convey, divide your current poem into two or three or however many poems so your poem's points are easily understandable as one whole.
I may add more to this topic as I look through my old college notes and read through poems others have written here in yonder forum, but that's what I remember from college. I hope this is helpful to you. Go forth and be published, honored friends here.
If you're just writing poems for fun, you may feel free to ignore me, but if you genuinely want to improve your writing, read on and profit.
1. Do not capitalize the first letter of every line in your poem. Just because Microsoft Word does it automatically, that doesn't mean it's a good idea. It makes you look lazy and an incompetent poet. Only capitalize:
-The first letter of each sentence
-Proper names
-Words you want to emphasize.
2. Unless you are using a traditional form such as a sonnet, haiku, haibun, or limerick, the best poems do not rhyme. Rhyming makes your poem seem silly and trite; the best poems have sonic variety for each of the lines, and that includes the line endings. More importantly, you need to pick the words that best convey your ideas and your points. Using a rhyme scheme encourages you to blunt that in favor of finding soundalike words.
Poetry is about picking the right words, spacing, literary devices, capitalization and punctuation, sounds, and meter and rhythm to convey an emotional experience. If you must use a rhyme scheme, change it up every so often. Don't fall into the abab cdcd efef or aabb ccdd eeff rhyme scheme for your whole poem. Change the scheme to emphasize an important point or to lead your reader into a new feeling.
3. Use a variety of poetic meters. Don't fall into a sing-song rhythm - that's a song, not a poem.
This stanza is not very effective. Let's try something that makes us look like a pro.
Meter is one of the best ways to convey emotion in a poem. Long lines convey fear, especially if you drop the spaces between words. Staccato lines are for sad and depressing poems like this one. Happiness and contentment are conveyed by slowing down the tempo, dropping the sense of urgency and letting us sink into the moment. Anger is conveyed through capital letters for emphasis and/or italics.
4. Poetry is a highly flexible form of language. Don't be afraid to change things up and experiment with different versions of the same poem.
Honestly, you're not going to know whether putting the main point of your poem in the middle of it in all caps with two periods on each side is going to work until you try it. The first draft of your poem should just be you getting your ideas out of your head in whatever form they take, and then go ahead experimenting with as many meter adjustments, punctuation ideas, and words until your points and the emotion behind them is conveyed clearly to your intended audience. Save different experiments as different Microsoft Word (or Libre Office Writer) documents. That way you have them all and can select the best one.
5. Cut unnecessary words and phrases that aren't necessary to convey the point of the poem, the main emotional truth you want the audience to walk away with. Use the absolute minimum words needed.
Poetry is not a place to muddy the waters by talking about more than one rhetorical point in one poem or including multiple emotions for the sake of including them. If you have more than one point to convey, divide your current poem into two or three or however many poems so your poem's points are easily understandable as one whole.
I may add more to this topic as I look through my old college notes and read through poems others have written here in yonder forum, but that's what I remember from college. I hope this is helpful to you. Go forth and be published, honored friends here.
