 Poetry: June 19, 2013 Issue [#5733] |
  Poetry
This week: Stronger Words Make Better Poems Edited by: Pat ~ Rejoice always!  
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| Welcome to this week’s Poetry Newsletter! I am happy to serve as your guest editor for this issue. Poetry is all about the senses. It should involve as many of the senses as possible. Poetic devices help to achieve this. In this issue, I’ll talk about the importance of making the best word choices to engage as many of the senses as possible. |
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Poetic devices include rhythm, rhyme, meter, alliteration, enjambment, metaphors, similes, and many more. I’d like to talk for a bit about word choices. Whatever other poetic devices you employ when writing a poem, the words you choose make all the difference. Every word should be held accountable. In other words, every word should serve a purpose. If another word would do a better job, then it should be used.
Careful thought must go into every word choice. Take the time to use the Ideanary here at Writing.com. If you’re unfamiliar with that tool, look in the left margin and click on Writing.com tools. Then, click on Ideanary. Type in a word and click Go. You’ll get an awesome list of words to choose from. Sometimes I type in one of the words on the list to see what ideas I get from the second list.
Use the dictionary too. I prefer the online {link: http://www.merriam-webster.com/}. It includes a thesaurus as well. Don’t be afraid to search for just the right word that says what you want it to say. A poem should sound like a poem. That doesn’t mean it has to rhyme. It just has to sound like poetry when read aloud.
Engage as many of the senses as you can by making rich, strong word choices. That doesn’t apply only to adjectives either. Choose strong nouns and strong verbs. Let the nouns and verbs evoke the most vivid images possible. Merely move? Or ripple? Or slither? Or flinch? Let the verb show the reader what’s happening.
A pet peeve of mine is making poor rhyming choices. I love rhyme in poetry, but not just for the sake of rhyme. The rhyme should be so subtle that it’s like the background music in a ballet. The poetry is the dance. The music enhances the dance like the rhyme enhances the poem. I hate it when I read a poem that has twisted the lines just so they end with the rhyming word. A better way is to either find a better rhyming word that actually fits in the line or start from scratch with a different rhyme.
Merely playing an instrument does not necessarily create music. Making lines rhyme does not necessarily make a poem lovely. Good poetry deserves and requires thought and effort to pull all the poetry devices together into a lovely, choreographed dance. |
Below, I’ve listed a few poems that I believe show this choreography. Some employ rhyme and others do not. Various poetry devices are seen in them, but the key is that the devices are balanced and work together smoothly to form a beautiful poem, one that the reader enjoys reading several times. I hope you’ll take time to read them and let the author know how they made you feel.
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| What makes a poem different than prose to you? How do lines on a page evolve into poetry? Why do certain poems move you with their message and their poetic presentation? I’d love to hear from you. |
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