How to write a good poem?

Question

I love writing poetry, but all my poems are free handed. Meaning I don't rhyme them or count out the syllables for lines.
I recently became a member of this poetry website. And a lot of the people there are always talking about the number of syllables in this line don't fit with the line under, or the rhyming scheme is wrong, or the stanza, or inversions, or inverted syntax, and etc. And I have NO clue what they're talking about! But I would sure love to know so I can become a better poet. So can someone please clue me in on this writer/poet talk and what it all means? Maybe give me a few pointers to writing better poetry?

Answer 1

Basically, they are talking about the rhythm or 'beat' of your phrases. The meter of spoken words is measured in 'feet'. A foot, (or iamb) is a soft (or short) syllable followed by a hard (or long) one; maROONED for example. The notation is _/

In "maROONED in SPACE is NO place FOR a CHILD",
the notation is _/ _/ _/ _/ _/. Because there are five (PENTA) feet in this line, the meter is called 'iambic pentameter'.

A rhyme scheme is notated like this; aabb ccdd eeff gg...and so on. I write many that are; abab cdcd efef eb (or fb).

Once you understand these notations, you can use them like the 'x' 'y' and 'z' of algebra.

I hope this helps,
TD

Answer 2

What poetry site have you joined? If you write exclusively free verse and most of the other poets on the site use rhyme and meter, you might be in the wrong place. Free verse and formal verse are both perfectly valid, but if you prefer chocolate ice-cream, there's no point in hanging out at a party where all they're serving is strawberry.

To write good poetry you need more than just inspiration and a flow of authentic feelings from your heart. You also need verbal craft. You need the ability to use language in a powerful, creative, artful manner. If you have the craft without the inspiration and feelings, your work will be rather arid and soulless. But if you have the inspiration and feelings without the craft, you won't really be writing poetry, you'll just be venting. Your poems will be more like diary entries than like real works of art.

There are some good books of poetry writing advice you can read. One is "The Poetry Home Repair Manual" by Ted Kooser. Another is "A Poetry Handbook" by Mary Oliver. If you want to explore meter and rhyme and other aspects of formal poetry, you can take a look at "The Ode Less Travelled" by Stephen Fry or "Rhyme's Reason" by John Hollander.

I won't try to define all the terms you've asked about, but I'll tackle one of them. When people criticize a poem for "inverted syntax," they mean that the poet has switched the normal order of words in a sentence. For example, somebody might write, "Into my arms she ran" instead of "She ran into my arms" or "No more could I take" instead of "I couldn't take any more." Often something like that is done to force a rhyme -- that is, an idea is expressed in a awkward or unnatural way in order to end a line with "take" or "ran" because that rhymes with the word at the end of some other line.

There are plenty of online resources available if you want to learn more about the other issues you raised, such as meter, rhyme schemes, and the meaning of "stanza."

Answer 3

To write a poem you need a theme. You can't just write, "The flower is blue. The girl had a ribbon in her hair." That isn't a poem. You also can't write, " The flower is blue. The girl had washed her hair with shampoo." because it rhymes. Your rhyming has to have a theme, you can't just pick random things to write because they rhyme.
You also need to put feeling into your poem. If the people on your "poetry website" don't like the way you write your poem, then that's their problem. If you put all your feelings and love into your poem, a and all the people that really matter like it, that's all the matters. The people on the poetry website shouldn't matter. They're just random people who take poetry a lot more seriously than you do. (That isn't a bad thing-it's just they're probably devoting their life to poetry and treating it like a proffesion, while for you this is just a hobby). Remember, the poems you write can be funny or sad or angry or whatever you like because it's your poem. You can get ideas from other people, but in the end your voice is the louder one. You decide what goes into your poem, not the people on your little poetry site, okay?

Answer 4

Human feelings can come out in varying read and/or misread ways.You can try using a dictionary to improve your general vocabulary and your vocabulary regarding rhymed words and sentences before using them in a practice of writing poems or any other forms of expressive texts.But the less you use them the more likely you are to feel like you forgot about them,i guess.You could try to write down or type up normal sentences first before trying to replace some words with rhyming synonyms or words.It can take time but then again,time will keep on going anyways.So even if you failed and felt like switching to another subjectively easier form of exaggerated expression,it may not seem like a waste of time if you did not think and feel so.You could read poems and/or use that desire of writing poems in,for example,trying to write a poem about the act of writing poems and your relative feelings and points(if you felt such a desire while googling some perhaps relatively discouraging-from a way of looking at it-stuff)...

Answer 5

My advise is just write from your heart,
have some sort of a beat and a sense of time
write the words that feel good and add a little rhyme...
But then I am not a poet...
So never mind.

Answer 6

Claire and TD are both correct in their answers. The only thing I have to add is that poetry should come from your heart and flow effortless. Don't put too much thought into it and it will always come out great!

Answer 7

Everybody above has given you really excellent advice. The only thing I can add is some links to good websites. Have fun!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scansion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_%28prosody%29
http://www.poetrymagic.co.uk/approaches.html
http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Poem
http://inin.essortment.com/howtowritepoe_rjsm.htm
http://www.abcteach.com/directory/basics/writing/poetry/
http://www.allinfoaboutpoetry.com/poetry_forms.html