Introduction
Why should one engage in the art of writing poetry? Poetry writing serves as a great outlet for sharing and expressing ideas. It is used all over the world to convey information, ideas and feelings. Also, poetry is a wonderful means of entertainment. The combination of imagery and imagination and further using rhyme, rhythm, tone and other stylistic devices in the appropriate way helps a lot in enhancing the writing of poetry. This paper gives a guide to writing poetry.
Writing a Poem
Generally, for anyone wanting to write a poem, it is important to be familiar with the different terms used in works of poetry. These refer to the type of poems, stylistic devices and other terms that are common to poetry. The purpose of this is to help the student construct a good poem based on the general principles of poem writing.
When writing the actual poem, the first step is to decide on the subject that one wishes to write about. One should be careful to start with a subject that is familiar before going on to other subjects that may be obscure and probably not given much thought in the past (Annon, Para 6). While at it, it helps to think about something unique or special about the subject and come up with some descriptive words which can help with providing clear information to the reader of the poem.
The tone of the poem is very important as it conveys feelings of the writer to the reader. The writer should therefore not shy away from expressing feelings whatever they may be. In addition to this, one should aim at creating pictures in the mind of the reader the aim being to fire the reader’s imagination (CSU, P 141). It should be remembered that this is not easily done in the mind but it helps to be jotting down ideas as they come. Later on these ideas can be arranged well on paper.
When writing ideas on paper, the writer should bind the words and ideas and connect them using rhyme, which brings the element of repetition of related or identical sounds. Also, introducing rhythm to the poem helps in making it more appealing. Rhythm is determined by the form of poetry chosen and the number of lines settled on. Another important thing is to arrange the poem on the page in such a way as to give good visual patterns. This improves the appeal of the poem a great deal.
Sound effects can be created using the right patterns of sound when writing. Assonance, alliteration and onomatopoeia are great devices for achieving this. Once the draft is ready, it can be checked by giving it to someone who will give honest criticism. This also helps in testing whether the tone, mood, sound patterns and other aspects are okay. Criticism is important in helping a writer grow and should therefore be welcomed and worked on. One should not be afraid to change the poem accordingly or learn from the comments of others.
Finally, writing poems should be fun. To give a good product one should enjoy themselves doing this and not be bogged down by the pressure to write something that will awe people or which is similar to the great works of iconic poetry writers. Remember, they all started somewhere before reaching those great heights.
Works Cited
CSU. Poetry center, 2011, World, self, poem: essays on contemporary poetry from the “jubilation of Poets, Kent state university.
Annon, 2011, Writing poetry. Web.