How To Write And Talk About Poetry When You Don’t Have A Clue
We’ve put together a post on how to write and talk about poetry when you don’t have a clue.
You don’t have to be an expert to talk about poetry, but it seems like a good idea to know something about it before you speak. I’ve put together a few odds and ends that might help you.
How To Write And Talk About Poetry When You Don’t Have A Clue
It is always a good idea to read poems before you talk about poetry. I compiled a list of my favourite poetry on this site a while ago. At least you’ll know what you do and don’t like if you do this. [Read: 17 Of The Most Powerful Excerpts From Poetry]
The Importance Of Sound
Sound is always a good place to start when you talk about poetry. It is how we identify the genre. Everybody finds it difficult to forget rhythmical poetry. Children love it.
You could tell people that poetry should ‘sound right’ when you read it aloud. It should flow without effort. Poetry allows you to play with words – to manipulate, to suggest, to twist, and to turn words inside out.
The fundamentals of poetry and prose are the same. However, poetry makes us experience the human condition at its most vulnerable. It makes us feel something. It is also to there to entertain.
If you want to say something clever about poetry, you could discuss the importance of emphasis.
Three Differences On Emphasis Between Poetry And Prose
- The emphasis in poetry is on the line. Poetry is more about a line than a sentence. Poetry lines never reach the right hand margin. Prose does. The line of poetry is more focused, unique, and intense.
- The emphasis in poetry is on rhythm. Although creative prose can be melodic, poetry is always rhythmic.
- Poetry emphasises the notion of less is more. Poems say more in less space. They are constrained by the limitations of line and the elements of rhythm.
Read these examples out loud:
Listen, my children, and you shall hear. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Whose woods are these I think I know. – Robert Frost
Irish poets, learn your trade,
Sing whatever is well made. – William Butler Yeats
Now that we’ve spoken about sound and emphasis, you could show off by discussing some of the most common poetry forms, including sonnets, haiku, and free verse. This will help you learn how to write and talk about poetry.
The Sonnet
Oxford Dictionaries: ‘A poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having ten syllables per line.’
14 Lines, That’s All
The term comes from the Italian word ‘sonetto’. It follows a strict rhyme scheme and specific structure.
Traditionally, the sonnet is written in iambic pentameter. This is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The rhythm is written as: da DUM. A standard line of iambic pentameter is five iambic feet in a row: da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM
The two sonnet forms from which all other sonnets are formed are: the Shakespearean (English) and the Petrarchan (Italian).
The English sonnet consists of three quatrains, which are four-line verses, followed by a rhyming couplet, rhyming as follows:
abab, cdcd, efef and generally ending with gg
Example: Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
The Italian sonnet has three verses, rhyming as follows:
abba, abba, cdecde or cdcdcd
Example: Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of everyday’s Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.
Find out more about sonnets here
The Couplet
According to Oxford Dictionaries, a couplet is ‘a pair of successive lines of verse, typically rhyming and of the same length.’
In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo. – T.S. Eliot
Wendy Cope is an expert at this. She maximises what she wants to say in two lines.
Two Cures for Love 1 Don’t see him. Don’t phone or write a letter. 2 The easy way: get to know him better. – Wendy Cope
Haiku
Oxford Dictionaries: ‘A Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.’
This is the Japanese art of poetry about the traces left by life experiences. It can be traced back as far as the 9th century.
One of the best ways to write haiku is to think like a forensic detective. Remember something that happened, and look at the traces – the evidence left behind.
17 Syllables, That’s All
The structure of a haiku is as follows:
5 syllables
7 syllables
5 syllables
It is a snail’s trail, the wine stain on the table, smoke after a fire.
Haiku is a way of looking at the physical world and seeing something deeper.
Under the rainclouds The plum blossoms seem like stars Despite the daylight. ~Uejima Onitsura
Free Verse / Blank Verse
Oxford Dictionaries: ‘Poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular rhythm.’
You can make your own rules here, but you should use this style to create an emotional response. It is about honesty of expression. It is not the form normally used to write about an object.
Example: The Portrait by Stanley Kunitz
My mother never forgave my father for killing himself, especially at such an awkward time and in a public park, that spring when I was waiting to be born. She locked his name in her deepest cabinet and would not let him out, though I could hear him thumping. When I came down from the attic with the pastel portrait in my hand of a long-lipped stranger with a brave moustache and deep brown level eyes, she ripped it into shreds without a single word and slapped me hard. In my sixty-fourth year I can feel my cheek still burning.
Questions To Help You With Free Verse
- Is it interesting?
- Is it melodic?
- Does the poem say something?
- Does the poem make you feel something?
- Is the viewpoint appropriate?
- Is it specific? (Show. Don’t tell.)
- Does the poem have power or beauty? (It should have one of these.)
Resources
There are many places to learn how to how to write and talk about poetry.
Here are five great poetry websites:
- Poetry Foundation – Publishes feature articles on poets and poetry, news about poetry publishing, and reading guides to poems from its comprehensive archive of more than 8,000 poems.
- Eat This Poem – In addition to recipe and poetry pairings, you’ll also find musings on writing, cooking, creativity, motherhood, and embracing the simple things.
- TheThePoetry – A blog about poetics, for both poets and non-poets.
- Poetry International Web – Let PIW take you on your global poetry tour.
- Poets & Writers – A blog to foster the professional development of poets and writers, to promote communication throughout the literary community, and to help create an environment in which literature can be appreciated by the widest possible public.
You will find more here
Here are five fantastic poetry pages on Facebook:
If you enjoyed this post, you will love: