What makes good poetry?

Question

I am a beginning poet, but what makes good poetry? What defines a great poem? Is there anything that defines it as great, or is it personal preference?

Any tips on how to get started, word choice, genres, etc.

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

read 5 poems by robert frost

Answer 2

If you can figure this out, then, you will be able to know what poetry is all about...

A poem should be palpable and mute
As a globed fruit

Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb

Silent as the sleeve-worn stone
Of casement ledges where the moss has grown -

A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds

A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs

Leaving, as the moon releases
Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,

Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,
Memory by memory the mind -

A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs

A poem should be equal to:
Not true

For all the history of grief
An empty doorway and a maple leaf

For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea -

A poem should not mean
But be

by: Archibald MacLeish

Answer 3

A good poet can engage the reader, make them think of new concepts, uses lush imagery, challenges beliefs or tells a story or all of these or none.
Good poetry is all a matter of opinion
A good way of getting started is to read other poets work, particularly the really great ones that have been around for ages; Eliot, Plath, Yeats, Blake, Poe, Shakespeare etc because there has to be something about them that got to people
Then practice, put it away for ages and review it, make changes
be inspired by everything
Don't be to cut if the ideas don't 'flow' or it just doesn’t work, if you read into many of the more famous poets they didn’t lead particularly happy lives

Answer 4

you really can't generalise ...
YOU have to like your own poems and then hope others will like it too.
A really good typ perhaps would be to write stuff down straight from the heart.
There aren't any rules to poetry..
Just scribble something down and then elaborate and focus on that one sentence until its perfect.
Put as much love into it.
If you write about something that really involves yourself or something that you really love or like (object, person etc..) I think any poet will find it easy to write about it.
I personally love very detailed poems..
So lets say you're writing about.. waves!..
I use a lot of metaphors.. So .. this is what I wrote..
quote: ' monstrous, mighty jaws looking down at their prey'
^^ k.. so everyone has a personal style ..(jaws.. reffering to the waves.. and prey : anything thats underneath the wave-- which is about to be smashed- lol)
I personally LOVE adjectives, similies and metaphors!
anything that makes something colorful and interesting.

anyways.. hope it helped.
Remember they are YOUR poems.. and they can only be great if they come from the heart, don't let anyone infulence you.. (well maybe ideas and stuff).. but the WAY and STYLE you write your poem in, should be your own.
:)

Answer 5

The call 'poetry' comes from the Greek verb ????? (to do some thing). In effortless language, the which ability is substantial - however the words not often count. In poetry the words count. because of the fact poetry is a sort of magical language (in Latin the observe for 'poem' is the comparable because of the fact the final observe for 'magic spell'). We no longer assume poems to bodily make issues take place (regardless of the undeniable fact that that's intresting what proportion hexes and robust success charms have the comparable formal shape as ordinary poems) - yet we nevertheless assume poems to artwork in a manner that effortless language would not. we assume the words in a poem to entice interest to themselves (as words). With a sturdy poem, you in no way assume to study it and 'basically get the gist': with a sturdy poem the honestly words used ought to stay with you. The Jeff Friedman you cite isn't a poem i might pick for example the version between poetry and prose. The piece is low-intensity (in all probability intentionally so) and would not look the excellence as needless to say as (say) Geoffrey Hill's Mercian Hymns or Dylan Thomas Altarwise by utilising Owl mild. yet there are nevertheless needless to say issues happening which you won't assume in effortless language. whilst Friedman tells us: a breaking pitch with plenty stuff on it .... .... the angels whistle you realize that the angels do no longer actually whistle here. in reality, you could understand what's being pronounced whether you do not have self assurance in angels. Friedman is utilising the language in a nonstandard way (for that reason, extreme exaggeration) with the intention to get a straight away visceral consequence. Poetry is approximately including straight away visceral consequences (and different kinds of magical augmentation) to the traditional technique of language (maximum language basically gadgets out to enable you realize some thing, to no longer straight away act on you). once you turn to somebody who basically jumped the lighting fixtures fixtures at a pedestrian crossing, and virtually mowed you down, and tell them to %*#! OFF! that's a comparatively effortless sort of poetry.

Answer 6

A fresh way to look at anything or a fresh way to express it. Taking the reader on your journey; feeling your outlook. The visual tools are completely natural. We use them as little kids when we say to another, Look! Doesn't this look like...?"

Answer 7

Being able to write a poem that everyone can relate to.

Answer 8

let's see i think a good poetry withstand the trend of time, the essence of that creation remains, unstained and influential. maybe something like that.

Answer 9

If it doesn't suck.