Poetry is one of the most beautiful forms of writing. Through its focus on form and diction, poetry is often able to influence the reader very strongly and leave a deep impression. Through poetry, the writer is allowed to express his feelings through language on a level rarely reached by prose. This article will give you the steps you need to start writing your poem.
Step
Part 1 of 5: Drawing Inspiration from Personal Experience and Surroundings
Step 1. Write about what you know
Writing about things you've personally experienced makes you a trustworthy writer and this will allow readers to connect with you more effectively through your poetry.
While writing based on your imagination is not impossible, it will be more difficult for you to recreate a scenario or translate emotions into words in written form if you have not experienced it yourself, especially if you are new to writing poetry. It could be that the message you convey even seems too shallow or transparent so that it becomes difficult for readers to trust you as a writer
Step 2. Use your memory
Incorporating memories into your writing will allow you to paint a clearer picture to the reader because it is based on your own reality, rather than creating new details.
Step 3. Use poetry as a personal reflection
Writing about your feelings and experiences can be good therapy. Writing about the past, especially about a traumatic experience, is an effective way to heal yourself.
Step 4. Write a poem based on something exemplary and historic
Many poems were written about nature or the environment in which the author lived.
- In "Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood," William Wordsworth begins, "There was a time of meadows and groves and streams of water, / The land and all that lay before me, / To me all was seen/ Wrapped in heavenly light. "'
- In Wordsworth's poetry, nature is the main topic. Wordsworth recounts how nature made him feel like a child and it is a powerful experience that can touch the heart of the reader.
Step 5. Write about where you live
Try to get out of the house and go for a walk or pay attention to the people at your favorite coffee shop. Pay attention to the details of places that are familiar to you and write them down.
Step 6. Write down what you see
Start by carrying a notebook with you everywhere and write down the details of the things you see every day. Focus on beautiful things or provoke certain feelings in you.
Part 2 of 5: Drafting an Idea
Step 1. Find out what you want to say
Every poem has a purpose. Perhaps the goal is to express a certain emotion or sing praises to a place or person. By focusing on your emotions, you can also choose a topic because writing about something you are passionate about is a good start.
Step 2. Narrow your topic
Some issues or situations are too broad to be conveyed in a poem. Think about your topic and decide if it's narrow enough to fit into a poem.
For example, maybe you want to write about parenting experiences. It can be difficult to write down the entire experience as a parent. Perhaps you could focus your energy into writing one aspect of this, such as being a parent for the first time, or the frustration you feel watching your child's sleep patterns, or the pride you feel when your child learns something new. By reducing the focus, the message you convey can be more effective
Step 3. Get to know your message
Once you've decided what your topic is and narrowed it down, you can think about what you want to convey through your poem. After reading it, it is the message of your poem that the reader will remember. Maybe you want to express the universality of a particular feeling or maybe you want to let your readers know that they are not alone in your experience. No matter what message you want to convey, make sure the message is in your mind before putting it into writing so that the message is clear in your poem.
Part 3 of 5: Writing the First Words
Step 1. Think about the first impression you want to give your readers
The opening few lines of a poem can be the most memorable and powerful. These words are the reader's first interaction with you and your emotions.
Step 2. Start with an overview
An image can be a great way to start a poem because it can create an atmosphere for the whole poem.
If you want to write a love poem about your relationship, you might want to start with a picture of a tender flower that grows thanks to the care of its environment (sunlight, nutrients from the soil, and so on). By doing so, you create a comparison between your relationship and this beautiful flower so that the reader can relate to it and this will help the reader to understand the meaning of your poem
Step 3. Start with emotion
Emotions can be the strongest thing a person experiences in his life. And everyone feels emotions, so expressing them is a great way to connect with your readers. Anger or pleasure, sorrow or happiness: these are emotions that other people also feel. So looking at these emotions and describing how they affect you can help draw readers into your poetry.
Step 4. Start with an event
Events have the power to determine the direction of your life or change our perspective on the world. Big events definitely change us, but so do smaller events.
- Conversations with strangers can change the way you see things; observing two people in love encourages you to rekindle the fire in your own relationship.
- Observing the significance of these events makes us think differently. Even smaller events can affect your readers in the same way they affect you.
Part 4 of 5: Focus on Format
Step 1. Think about what kind of poem you want to make
Format can help in conveying the message by drawing the reader's attention to certain parts or by making the poem more interesting/memorable through repetition, rhyme, and other things in the poem. Here are some common poetry formats:
- Haiku- a 3-line poem each consisting of 5, then 7, and finally 5 syllables
- Sonnets - 14-line poems consisting of an octave (8 lines) and a sestina (6 lines) or three quatrains (4 lines) and a couplet (2 lines)
- Sestina- a form of poetry consisting of 6 stanzas of 6 lines followed by a stanza of 3 lines with repetition of the last word of each line in a complex poem
- Prose poetry - a traditional type of poetry without line breaks that looks like prose but retains other elements of poetry
Step 2. Read the poem
What we read can affect the way we write. If you want to write poetry in classical Greek style, read classical Greek poetry. If you want to emulate a free rhyme like Walt Whitman's, read Walt Whitman's poems.
Step 3. Decide whether you want to write in rhyme or free rhyme
Poetry that rhymes can be easier to remember and flow better for readers. However, this form of poetry is limited in its content (because you have to choose words that rhyme with other words, instead of using the word you mean.).
- Here is an example of a rhyming poem. Here's the start of Shakespeare's "Sonnet 28". Notice the standard ABAB rhyme scheme he uses: "May I compare you to summer? / You are more beautiful and fresh:/ Though the beautiful flowers of May are shaken by a fierce wind, / It's a shame that summer fades so quickly"
- Free rhyme style poetry is not limited by rhyme at the end of the line and can flow according to the will of the author. For example, here's a snippet from Walt Whitman's famous poem "Song of Myself": "No beginning than now, / No younger or older than now, / And no greater perfection than now. / Just as there is no heaven and more hell than now."' This part of the poem repeats "than now" in each line, but it doesn't rhyme.
Step 4. Practice your freewriting skills
Freewriting is a brainstorming method used in writing because you are pushing yourself to keep writing over a period of time. This is a great way to start putting some of your ideas down on paper and you can use them when writing your poetry.
When writing freely, don't think about grammar or punctuation. The important thing is that you keep writing and never pull your pencil away from the paper. You can write freely for three minutes or even twenty minutes. Up to you. Freewriting helps you put all your ideas down on paper and creates connections between all these ideas that may have been buried before
Step 5. Create some concepts
Start writing your poem and keep writing until you are satisfied. You can start with one stanza or try to finish the whole poem. Take a short break from writing and then get back to working on the poem and revising it. Change the wording or rewrite the entire array. Make as many changes as you need.
Part 5 of 5: Use Diction
Step 1. Pay attention to your word choice
Compared to other forms of writing, diction and word choice are very important in poetry. Try to use descriptive words that can paint the picture more clearly.
For example, you could write "shadows over the dark night" instead of simply "dark night." It is more descriptive and gives the reader a more accurate picture
Step 2. Apply metaphors
Metaphors compare two things directly on the basis of similarities by describing them as if they were the same.
In a play he wrote entitled "As You Like It," William Shakespeare said, "The world is a stage/ All men and women are just performers:/ They all go up and down the stage." Shakespeare uses metaphors that compare action in real life to action in a theatrical play. Shakespeare said that the world "is" a stage and all people "are" actors, but that doesn't mean they are real actors
Step 3. Use an analogy
An analogy is a comparison between two things intended to help the reader understand a situation or event. Usually, writers compare the known with the unknown to help the reader understand the unknown. Unlike the metaphor that compares an unknown thing to saying the unknown "is" the more known thing, the analogy of saying the unknown "is like" the more known thing.
