Have just started writing poetry, so I started doing some research on it. It seems there are a lot of types and people coming up with more all the time. So I was curious as to how many types people may have tried and what do they prefer. I haven't tried anything that doesn't have some rhyme to it. I've just started doing some acrostic which is interesting and can be challenging.
I don't know how to really comment on the 'types' of poetry. There's a whole bunch of contributing factors to poetry, such as stress patterns, rhyme scheme, line lengths (feet). The construction of poetry is huge, like whether the poem is iambic, trochaic, anapestic, dactylic, or freeverse/blank verse. Then the line lengths also matter in combination with this i.e the most common poetry is pentameter, ten syllables 5 feet. Writing poetry is awesome, I really enjoy it. I've learned to appreciate music to a greater extent because of my understanding of poetry. My favourite to read are probably sonnets. They are straightforward... usually a theme on love. Some poetry just goes off on tangents and if you want to grasp the idea behind it you have to really analyse it. Sonnets are usually easy to understand, which is why I like them, and a lot of great poets like Shakespeare and Spencer have tons of sonnets. I don't think I answered any of your questions... but that is my brief take on poetry lol.
You gave your thoughts, which is what I was interested in. I'm still trying to grasp the iambic and pentameter thing. Syllables aren't an issue but trying to figure out, stressed and unstressed is still giving me problems.
To me rhyming seems a bit outdated and comical. A lot of modern poets tend to write in free verse because it's less constraining (though still very hard to write well). Besides rhythm and stress patterns, it's important to pay attention to how a line ends and what purpose a line break serves. It's really just a matter of reading a lot of modern poetry and seeing how other poets do it. If you're really interested, read some books on the theory of poetry. They go into a lot of detail about constructing and rewording phrases to get the most out of every line.
I've written poetry in free verse. I don't like the idea of having to make things rhyme or have a specific meter, unless I'm kidding around, like writing limericks. I've never written epic poetry - a whole, complex story told in verse of some kind - but I might try it some day. My stuff is usually a page or two long. It may not be much, but it's important to me.
I've written Haiku, limericks, and even a tetractys. Even when I write free verse, I use imagery and metaphor to tie everything together, and play close attention to the rhythm. I am no fan of completely unstructured poetry. Structure, restrictions are what hold the poem together. A container limits how much water can be held in it, and constrains it to a particular shape. Without the container, the water becomes merely a wet mess.
That begs the question, if it doesn't have some structure, is really poetry or just a bunch of nice sounding phrases. If it didn't some pattern as I said or read it, I'm not sure I'd recognize it as poetry, as a non poet.
The dictionary will help with the stressed and unstressed. I accidentally managed to take a creative writing: poetry course which I decided to stay in after I figured it out. In writing, I prefer the structured styles verses free verse. Even if I feel like banging my head against a wall, it's an interesting travel to get something completed.
I wouldn't say that free verse is unstructured. A poet still needs to consider word choice, line breaks, etc. Writing random phrases isn't going to impress anyone who reads a lot of poetry. The lack of a rhyme scheme or set rhythm makes it harder (IMO) to write a successful poem in free verse, although I will say that a lot of poets add some kind of restriction (blank verse being an extreme case) to make it easier.
So far I've done all of 5 or 6 poems. Not comfortable unless it rhymes somewhere. The trouble with the stressed and unstressed syllables is in English it's often where you put the emphasis yourself.
I always thought the goal of poetry was self expression in a manor that would touch others using tone, pitch and rhythm as well as the imagery of the words themselves. Though I guess like any other discipline there are those who seek to impress their peers.
Yep it is, it's hard to hear it to depending on your accent. The dictionary gives you a good place to start and understand them.
To me, poetry is ALL about rhythm and tone and imagery and metaphor, all combined to present a vision to the reader that he hopefully hasn't experienced before. Rhyme is not necessary. Conventional structure (sonnet form, etc.) is not necessary.
Yes, I agree. Figuring out which parts are stressed and not stressed is difficult. I always struggle at that. That's why I love sonnets, they are usually iambic pentameter, and it doesn't take me a long time to understand the rhythm and whatnot.
I've tried a decent number of poetry types including (but not limited to) Sonnets, Terza Rima, and Haiku. Of them I have a real soft spot for Sonnets but whenever I write poetry I like to pick the form that I think best suits the poem I want to write, and what I want to do with it.
Iambic pentameter is easiest, but figuring out the stresses is difficult I know. Each foot has 1 or 2 unstressed words and 1 stressed one. da DUM or da da DUM (except you can also do two stresses in a row Green Room would be an example and DUM DUM rhymically) To write a verse and count the feet is hard to do But I know you will succeed if you try to
Have you ever tried writing a gazhal poem, it's where you end each stanza with the same word and each stanza paints an image or relates in some way to that word. I recently wrote one and it worked out great. For me the type or form of poem I write depends entirely on each individual poem. Though my favorite way to write poetry is to not really follow a specific structure but create my own. Not sure why you all like sonnet structure so much, I mean I've done it but it's just seems like another rhyme scheme
I actually just began writing a poem after a dream last night. The rhyme goes like this - a, b, a, b, c, d, c, d. It is basic start to a sonnet and I will probably end up forming it into that. A lot of times I just start writing and the rhyme and structure flows. I have found some of my favorite lines develop in free verse.
i'm a fairly full time poet and if you browse my website's 'philosetry' section, you'll see i write poetry in all sorts of forms and formats, both rhymed and blank verse... not all of which are 'standard'... i simply let each piece dictate its own form...
