The Guide; Part I: General Poetry Writing

This will be a good start to practice.
My school teachings in English was just vague for me, i was so bad. I'm still struggling.
There wasn't any activities like writing poems or writing, there were essays(bad topics) and how to write applications which we find it so boring,there was no practice.

 

The Forms of Poetry

I found this site while searching for the different types of poetry. The site shows 51 types of poetry and offers a brief explanation of each. I thought the site would be helpful.

http://www.poemofquotes.com/articles/poetry_forms.php

 

does poetry have to provoke thought? Does every word have to have a meaning, if a poem rhymes does it subtract sincerity? Rhythm in a poem is as important as a heartbeat in a newborn no?

tell me what makes a good poem, to you?

 

I think anything written should provoke thought or an emotion of sorts, or why would a person write? Do words(all words have to have meaning, well yes in a way, no in a way) some words are mere attachments to ease the flow of the idea, some play an important role.

rhythm, i'm not so sure, in the rhyme of things, then i'd say more so, but if talking about free verse, well not so much and it might more get in the way pushing someone to look for the rhyme not there.

what makes a good poem to me? Hard to say, sometimes it's how its been written, the uniqueness of the style, sometimes its the words inside.

I suppose if it touches me, invokes that response, then I like it. It doesn't always have to be a well written poem to do that, sometimes you have to look from the writer's eyes, my life is not theirs, their experiences are not mine. I try to remember that.

thanks for the questions.

now how about you, what are your answers to them?

 

of course not!... many poems are meant to touch the readers' emotions... or just to share a view/image of something...

i'll treat that as a separate question, since it really is one... and the answer is 'yes!'... every single word a writer in any medium writes should have a meaning, a good reason for being there... if it doesn't, it shouldn't be there... that's what separates the serious and professional good writers from the amateurs and poor ones...

...it shouldn't... and it doesn't, for well-written poetry, though to many 'lay' people, it may seem to... that said, the way it's rhyme is arranged can affect how the readers will view its purpose... for instance, a limerick won't be taken as seriously as a sonnet...

...not a very good analogy, but yes, rhythm is important in poetry, as that's one of its prime components... but not all poems have to have an easily discernible rhythm... a lot of good blank verse doesn't seem to have one, yet it still 'flows' well as it's read, which is a rhythm of sorts...

...display of excellent writing skills, apt word choice, clarity of meaning, sparity of wording...

 

i agreed with everything you wrote, with the exception of the first about thought, but i suppose it depends on the type of thought, emotion is based on thoughts, or so that's how i took the question to be, you must remember an emotion, the first time you feel love, you don't know what it is, the second time your remember, think back, give it a name. Maybe i took the question too direct.

interesting read and thoughts.

 

Poetry should provoke thought. If it doesn't linger in your mind after you've finished reading the words, doesn't touch your emotions in some way, bring up your own memories, then you haven't connected to the poem. Then they might as well be scribbles on a page.

Each word should earn its place in the poem, hold meaning, add to the poem.

A poem should have some rhythm in the flow of words - even free verse, when it is often very subtle. If it doesn't then you might as well be writing prose.

Rhyme has to be done very well if it isn't to distract from sincerity. If when reading, the rhyme blends in well and the meaning is uppermost then it works. When all you see is the rhyme scheme then sincerity is subtracted.

A good poem is one that touches me in some way, leaves me with images in my head long after I finished the poem.

time passes too quickly. I have to go to work. May come back to this.

 

i took 'provoke thought' to mean there has to be some 'message' that is intended to make the reader consciously 'think' about what is being presented... and i still say 'no' that is not a requisite for all poetry...

many good poems merely make the reader feel good/sad/whatever, or enjoy the imagery of what is being described, just as one would a lovely photo or painting... and i don't consider that as provoking thought... the key word here is 'provoke'...

 

i then will disagree, any image is a thought, a comparison to a memory. provoke by a word written. maybe a reader needs to write poetry to see this
I don't know how many times people asked me what i thought of a poem.

interesting thoughts you bring up though

 

Provoke means to stir up, call forth, brig about. There is no measurement of depth so any thought, image, smile, tear that a poem has aroused in the reader is a thought provoked.

 

in which case, the question, "does poetry have to provoke thought?" is a useless one, since anything one writes will automatically do so, whether or not the writer intends it to be done... one could write totally meaningless gibberish and 'provoke thought' by castle and dd's definition, but i doubt that's what the poster had in mind when asking the question...

 

possibly but then we aren't the poster, just repliers giving our views

strange how that is

 

hmmm....

i don't think grammar is that important in poetry... Especially in Syllabillic Verse

(obviously punctuation is important) but I've read some great poems that don't use punctuation at all...

 

Contrary to popular belief, poetry isn't an excuse or a venue for those who are poor at grammar/punctuation.
It's probably more important than in traditional writing because there aren't editors to fix your mistakes and everything has to be done with intent.

 

Edwould has a point though too. Traditional grammar rules may not fully apply to poetry, because poetry need not form full sentences. That doesn't mean grammar is irrelevant, but that it may yield more freely in poetry than in prose.

Nevertheless, grammatical glitches can really ruin the flow of a poem if they aren't purposeful.

 

myself, talking here

but the rules of grammar interfer with poetry, if you look at haiku/senryu/haibun and such or even modern day poetry, they break rules all the time.

typical spelling i've seen broken for the flow or rhyme, so i'm with Cog's, tradition grammar does not apply. if you look at some songs its the same there.

so its not used as an excuse, although i agree if the writer ignores it just for the sake of laziness then it should be corrected.

 

My point was you have to know the rules of grammar in order to break them without looking like an idiot. I like a lot of poetry that plays with grammar and is experimental in that regard.

 

ah, well in that point I readily agree

 

The human mind has an enormous capacity to understand the patterns of language. Grammar is the pattern we use for the easiest everyday communication. In poetry, because we have a longer period to consider the message (by which I do not mean moral), we can use different patterns to achieve different effects. That does not mean we can completely ignore the basic pattern. But it does mean that we can try others. Grammar does not interfere with poetry. There is some beautiful poetry with perfect grammar. What grammar needs to avoid is constraining the poem. There are wonderful poems that use experimental patterns. There are also some crappy ones. Grammar is very important to any form of communication. Just not necessarily standard grammar.

 

yes Grammar is important but as i said, and as you hinted, the basics of grammar, the basic rules, such as fullstops/commas placed, is not necessary to show a break or bring attention to words that should be expressed enough as they are. I've seen beautiful poetry with slang in it, and with what others would term as grammatical mistakes. our need to bring all the rules into poetry, i believe is a mistake. the captials for each line and such. if you look at haiku and other forms of poetry from other countries, the grammar rules are slackened.

Standarnd grammar is what i'm talking about, those have seen even those rules broken and still hold a poem to the emotions attached. what i'm saying is simply, poetry has the freedom to do so, as long as it is done correctly and with meaning behind.

interesting read, thanks for your thoughts

 

that hasn't been the standard for poetry for nearly a century... except, of course, for greeting cards and doggerel displayed on wall plaques... the lines of a poem should be capitalized the same way as if they were prose... unless the poem has no capitals or end punctuation at all, as some do... here are examples of both:

 

i understand caps and commas and such, i just don't like using them. but understand their importance in some cases. the problem is i never really studied poetry, just wrote it, enjoyed the freedom away from those full stops and large bully letters. lol who knows maybe time spent in a cell makes me fight rules.

but i'm making an efford to change that. its why i'm here.

thanks for the examples M(x4)

 

love your shorthand version of my username!... feel free to call me 'maia' or 'mom' or even 'ma' if it's easier...

and browse the 'philosetry' section of 'writings' on my site, to see the variety of ways i 'break the rules' re structure, with my own poetry...

 

I feel the exact same way about these lines:

"Arrows from the bows of nature's silent warriors pound the tin roof, noisily"

and

"We are the best of the best we are fake"


The OP talks about how the poetry is bad around here, and gives examples of "good poetry", and yet funnily enough, the examples he gave I consider "bad poetry".

Go figure.

 

I think the point was that metaphor can add another layer to a line. I agree that the line in question is a little bit much--at least out of context.