The Art of Poetry Writing

Poetry can be described in so many ways, but one general concept people have about poetry is, it stems from an emotion, an inspiration, or from a particular event in the poets life. Poetry is an art form that uses metaphors to express a certain thought or story.

While telling the tale as it is can be easier understood, poetry is not into expressing one definite meaning, but rather into making the reader think and determine for themselves what the writer may be trying to put forth. The artistic use of words to represent something is else is common in a lot of poetry writing styles and is viewed as the norm by most poetry writers. Poetry, however, is basically indefinable and this may be due to the multiple writing styles available to the art.

People who write poetry for the first time usually write from the top of their heads. This means, once inspiration hits them, they write down whatever they felt during that inspired moment in the simplest possible words that they could use. While this does not make for good poetry writing, this could be very well the base for a good poem.

Like all books and other reading material, poetry can only improve with rereading and some rewriting. Some of your emotions from that inspired moment may have been expressed accurately enough for you, however, to help it transcend into art, some careful scrutiny and deliberation may be needed to further complete your work of art.

While certain words may be accurate enough for the writer in terms of expressing the emotion they are trying to convey, this, however, does not ensure that the poem is good.

Here is where metaphors come into play. You can use certain comparisons to how you feel by pairing them off with things and happenings around you. For example, if you are feeling sad, you do not just write in your poem that you are feeling sad or there is sadness in you.

Try to find a phrase that can encompass what you feel without being too direct so as to leave the rest of the thinking to the imagination of your reader. A good comparison to the word sad would be dark or darkness. Another possible word you can use would be deep or depth.

These two word choices may not be totally negative or describe the word sad if taken all by itself, but combined with a few other words, you can artistically portray the feeling of sadness in your poem.

Not all poems are expressions of sadness and negativity, however, despite there being quite a number of them being created and having been created. This is not surprising since sorrow is a very strong emotion and writing can be quite an outlet for this feeling. Anger, as well, has found an outlet in putting pen to paper, along with confusion and even hate. More positive feelings are also common fodder for the poet, with the astounding number of love poetry that is available making this apparent. Other stronger emotions often used for poetry include happiness, and, well, the other predecessors and by-products of happiness.

Whatever the inspiration a person has for writing a poem or poems, poetry is indeed a literary art form that is, as indefinable as it is, something that a lot of us can do well, with a lot of feeling and some practice.

One of the rather useful tools to better yourself at poetry writing is your basic thesaurus. It offers you quite a few choices in terms of word selection to further express what you feel in your writing.

Autor: pitorian

Rhyme and Meter in Poetry

Meter in poetry is basically the rhythmic structure of a verse. There are recurring patterns of stressed (assented, or long) and unstressed (unaccented or short) syllables. There are six basic types of meter in poetry most commonly used. They are the following: Iambic, Trochaic, Anapestic, Dactylic, Spondee, and Pyrrhic.

Iambic Meter:

The foot of the verse starts with an unaccented and ends with an accented stressed syllable.

Trochaic Meter:

It is the opposite of Iambic meter form in that it begins with an accented stressed then follows with an unaccented syllable.

Anapestic Meter:

The foot of the verse has two unaccented syllable and then followed by one accented syllables.

Dactylic:

The foot of the verse has one accented syllable which is followed by two unaccented syllables.

Spondee Meter:

The foot of the poem includes two accented stressed syllables.

Pyrrhic Meter:

A foot of a poem includes two unaccented syllables to help vary the use of rhythm.

Rhyme in Poetry

The basic meaning of rhyme is two words that sound alike. Rhyming in poetry is the most recognized and conventional tool in poetry. Rhyme helps fuse a poem. Today, conventional poetry aren’t as strictly determined as they were during the English Renaissance or in 18th century literature. Rhyme can help indicate a poetic theme and help to structure a subject that would otherwise seem disorganized. Meter plays a large role in this with rhyme.

There is internal rhyme within a line of poetry and then the more commonly known form is end rhyme which occurs at the end of the line and at the end of another line within the stanza of the poem.

Adjectives are overrated

Using adjectives can be impressive because it shows off the writer's vocabulary, but that's about it. The creativity lies hidden, and vocabulary is just something you can learn... creativity is lived and found within you. Creativity is what makes something artistic; it makes the poet a poet. But obviously, the logic and form shouldn't be set aside.

The writer who uses too many adjectives is a lazy and mediocre writer. In the sole reason that instead of them creating the image they wanted to present, the reader does it for himself or herself.

I suggest (but no one is obligated to follow) the further use of metaphors. Adjectives won't get you nearly as far as metaphors.

Please consider the following comparisons.

When a person in love with adjectives writes about silence, these lines may appear:

"Your vast absence of words has ultimately reached the concluding edge of forever"
- pretty good line. The person is stating that the huge quantity of silence the person has given him is about to reach the end of forever.

But Jeffrey McDaniel has a different kind of approach towards silence.

"I've been ignored by prettier women than you,
but none who carried the heavy pitchers of silence
so far, without spilling a drop."
- He used more words but he used them inevitably. And the image he created behind the metaphor was intense.

Nouns also make good substitutes for adjectives. How would you describe our kind being harmful to nature and the environment?

"selfish beings burning nature's heart... blah blah"

But if you think hard enough for a noun that could describe your thought, it wouldn't be so hard.

"Plastic species roam the land,
to rot and spread the virus."

Plastic (noun) is a material that is harmful to the environment and used without abandon by humans. It also rots and may cause cancer once burnt.

There are a lot of ways you can spice up your writing with the lesser use of adjectives and a creative use of its substitutes.

"I remember how your eyes harassed me"
- any reader can fill up the emotion in this line. But if you deliver it differently, it can be more specific:

"I remember your eyes: fifty attack dogs on a single leash"
- feel the tension?

The test here is that if we want to broaden the intensity and affectivity of our writings, we must set aside the use of words to describe a feeling, set aside the use of verbs to announce an action, and just let our metaphors, similes, etc... saturate our work with imagination and stimulation.

It's a good exercise. Try it. :)

by The Tasteless

Inspiring the Poet in You

by: Anusuya Veth

Poems. Just the mention of them makes me smile. Why? Simple. I delight in writing and reading poetry.

Some tend to think that to be a poet is not easy and that it must be those deep thinkers who can write poems.

Actually all of us can be poets if we have creativity. After all poems are creations of our minds and our experiences.

If you are still clueless and you think that you can never write a single poem, below are some inspiring tips to awake the poet in you:

1. Read

Read other poets work and observe how they write. You don't have to read heavy stuff as there are also writers who write simple and easy-to-understand poems. Start with simple ones to get into the flow of poetry.

2. Poetry Class

Is there any poetry writing classes in your university or any other institutions? It will be a good idea to join the class and learn about the basics of writing poetry as most beginners start this way.

3. Talk with Poets

Is there anybody whom you know is a poet? Speak to them and ask them how did they start writing poems. They will be glad to share with you their experiences. By doing this you will be getting valuable information from an expert and you can learn from their experiences.

4. Write

If you don't try you will never know so the next best thing to do is to pen a poem yourself. It could be long or short but start working on the poems. You could also keep a journal for your poems.

5. Contests

There are many poetry contests both in magazines & in portals. Take part and submit your poems. Once again this step is to encourage and motivate yourself to write poems.

6. Get Feedback

After writing the poems get a friend or better still a poet to give you feedback on your work. Ask them if they like it and if they don't ask them why. By doing this you will be able to know how well your poems are able to communicate with others.

Like I said writing poems is a form of communication. It all depends on the writer and his or her emotions and thoughts. But one key thing which pushes all us poets is the passion for writing them. So get creative and start penning those hidden poems!

Poetry Tips

Poetry is one of the most unique and expressive forms of writing. Unlike most writing, poets aren’t bound by a plethora of restrictions. Poetry can be about anything and anyone can write it. With a little practice, you can be proud of your poetry so grab that pencil and paper and follow my tips.

1. First you’ve got to come up with an idea. If you want your poem to be meaningful, its helpful to know where you’re going with it beforehand. All inspiration is created equal when it comes to poetry, so anything that moves you, whether it’s the look of a pile of rustyautomotive parts or an abstract emotion, it’s worthy of a poem.
2. Next start brainstorming your ideas. Just start writing unconsciously without inhibition if you can. Your feelings and thoughts will just flow out and hopefully you’ll find something you deem worthwhile.
3. Once you’ve brainstormed ideas, its time to start organizing your thoughts. You can stick to traditional forms of poetry or you can write in free verse. If you aren’t sure which style is right for you, try out several different ones. Eventually one will stick out as the most natural to you.
4. When organizing your poem, make sure to take both meter and rhythm into account. Meter is the pattern in your poem and rhythm is how your poem should sound when it’s spoken. Both are incredibly important and should be taken into consideration when writing your poem.
5. Use imagery in your poem. This will appeal to the reader’s senses and it will give your poem more depth. You should also try to use symbolism and metaphor in your poem. This will make for a more interesting poem.
6. Let others read and critique your poetry. This may be scary at first, but allow for some constructive criticism. It will make your work stronger and you will grow as a poet.
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Free or Formal

Poems can be constructed in either free verse or formal verse. Most poets today write free versewhich is open to pattern and is recognized as nonconforming and rhyme less verse. Metrical verse relies on stanza length combined with meter or rhyme patterns distinct to itself. There are several traditional commonly-known forms of poetry.

Haiku, a form of Japanese descent, consists of three lines of five, seven, and five syllables respectively, and traditionally deals with nature subjects.

A sonnet, whether of English or Italian rhyming scheme, is a single- or two-stanza lyric poem containing fourteen lines written in iambic pentameter. Shakespeare's love sonnets are well-known.

Most journals of literary note do not embrace traditional rhyme and form poetry, preferring the more commonly used free verse which is not bound by any rules of meter and rhyme. Unless you're the Earl of Rochester or Alexander Pope, it would be best to stick with the unconventional verse. Here are some traditional types ofpoetry and free forms:

Sestina - The sestina is a six 6-line stanzas followed by a 3-line stanza. There is a predetermined pattern in that the same six words are repeated at the end of lines throughout the poem. The last word in the last line of one stanza becomes the last word of the first line in the next stanza. Then rounding it off with the final 3-line stanza, all six end words appear. You may want to read some of Sylvia Plath's sestinas to familiarize yourself with this form.

Two forms that are closely related to each other are the villanelle and the pantoum. The villanelle, a nineteen-line poem, is made up of five 3-line stanzas and one 4-line stanza (or quatrain) at the end of the poem. Alternating between the ends of each tercet (3-line stanza) there are two refrains that eventually end up forming the last two lines of the quatrain. Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" is an example of a villanelle. The pantoum is comprised totally of quatrains. In each stanza the second and fourth lines are repeated in the first and third lines of the following stanza, until the final stanza where the first line is the poem's first and the second line is the poem's third line. "Evening Harmony" by Charles Baudelaire is an example of a pantoum.

Free verse does come in various forms, the most common being driven by cadence in which common language rhythm is substituted for regular metrical pattern, which can be seen in the works of Walt Whitman and the King James Bible versionof The Psalms and The Song of Solomon.

A second type of free verse is free iambic verse which was used by such poets as T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden.

A third form is the free verse proper, the most used form, where the inconsistency is at the center of the poem. There is no set metrical rhyme or patterns of meter and rhythm. Unlike traditional verse, free form is not constrained by the rules regulating syllables in stanzas.

There is often confusion as to what is meant by visual poetry. If you have written a very descriptive poem about a whale, it may be a wonderful free verse poem, but not visual. If you have written the same poem and the presentation of the piece is in the shape of a whale, you have written a visual poem.

If you'd like further information about poetry terms, take a look at John Drury's "The Poetry Dictionary." It defines key terms that should be in the vocabulary of every poet. Above all, keep writing! Poetry provides a wonderful outlet for observation, exploration, and healing.

Haiku writing

Haiku is a type of short poem, which originated in Japan during the 17th century. What set it apart from other types of poetry was that it began as kind of game among the merchants and lower class citizens. True to its origins, Haiku developed characteristics that are quite different from the elegant court and love poetry of its times. It is spontaneous, crisp, and used images that were quite ordinary.

The aim of Haiku as with any other type of poetry is to express as much as possible in as little words as possible. But in Haiku this primary rule is followed to the extreme. Usually, a haiku is just three lines long, with 17 syllables. For brevity sake, articles, pronouns and other grammar words are often removed from a haiku.

So how do you write a Haiku? The key to Haiku is to catch the fleeting idea. The best Haiku comes to our mind quite unexpectedly. It might be a trivial incident. An image from nature will be sufficient. The cat arching its body after a sleep, a dog wagging its tail, an ant talking with another ant, a butterfly fixed to a flower, etc, will be enough. Usually, a season word like rain summer, wind or anything that relate to climate and weather is ideal for a Haiku.

See that the image is concrete and they do not directly allude to abstract concepts like afterlife, final judgment etc. A good rule of thumb is to see if someone can enjoy your Haiku without having an insight into your philosophy. Another important thing to remember is that your poem should contain only one or two images. Too many images can confuse the reader. But the real fun in a haiku is to conceal such cosmological truths in simple looking verses that talks about trivial things. Matsuo Basho, a seventeenth century Japanese hermit excelled in this. His most famous poem goes like this:

The old pond—

a frog jumps in,

sound of water.

In the nineteenth century, poets like Ezra Pound and other imagist poets were attracted to Haiku and adapted it to fit the English Language. His famous poem “"In The Station of the Metro” is an example for this:

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
petals on a wet, black bough

With the examples given above, you can start writing your own haiku poem. So what are you waiting for?