Question on Writing Poetry

Hey folks.

Since I like writing poetry a lot, especially in French, I'm actually wondering :
How do YOU personally go on about writing poetry? Make a huge draft, assemble your ideas first? Wonder about the problems of the world, sit at a café and just look at people? Or simply let the words pour out of your head, as it were? It seems that I just can't adjust inspiration and method.

And also : Do you give special attention to alliterations, assonances? Do you really polish your words, try to put an iambic pentameter, and so on?

Thanks for your feedback, I think it would be highly instructive to me :)

I usually just let the words flow freely as it were. I will get a spark from the muse, which can come from a vast variety of different things, a feeling, an image, or a particular phrase or verse will suddenly whisper in my mind and I will build off of that. And then I will just sit down and write it all out, and let it form itself as it comes, often times a poem will take a completely different direction than I expected from the start of it I never know just how it will end.

I am not one typically for heavy editing of my work, after the initial writing I might change a couple of little things, but most of my poems, I keep just as they first come from me, and if I am not happy with how it came up I usually will scrap the whole thing.

There are a couple of occasions where I might decide to rework a poem if I like the idea behind it, but am not happy with how it was conveyed, I will get feed back from others and rewrite it, hone it, to try and shape it up to a place that I am happy with it.

My free verse poems I usually don't worry about creating any particularly rhyme, or form etc.. I let the words do what they feel like doing. But I do also love experimenting, and playing around with a wide variety of different poetry styles and so when I am trying to conform to a specific style, that usually does take a little more forethought and sometimes a couple of drafts on getting everything to come together.

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Originally Posted by Dark Muse

I usually just let the words flow freely as it were. I will get a spark from the muse, which can come from a vast variety of different things, a feeling, an image, or a particular phrase or verse will suddenly whisper in my mind and I will build off of that. And then I will just sit down and write it all out, and let it form itself as it comes, often times a poem will take a completely different direction than I expected from the start of it I never know just how it will end.

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Sometimes this happens to me too. I just read or see something interesting and want to write about it. But our difference consists on the approach I think.
I myself rather just like to be in front of my desk, write the whole idea out in the form of a text, and then try to change those sentences into more, you know, "handy" words, so it gets concise.
But yes, like you said later on, the approach of writing depends if you want to work within a certain poem type, a frame as it were, or if you would like to experiment.

Thanks for highlighting this aspect. :)

Dark Muse has it. Still, writing down your concept can only help. It's all the re-writes that make it happen but without a first draft of something... where do you go? q1

For me it entirely depends on what I'm doing and what I want to accomplish with a piece and what the inspiration is. If I'm inspired to express a theme or concept then I'll likely go about figuring out how best to do that. If I'm experimenting with forms then the subject matters less than simply constructing something within it. Sometimes I'm more interested in playing with words and often-times alliterative or punning verses will come into my head and I'll just start writing and let it flow. Often if I find while writing that my piece fits into a certain form I'll try to keep it that way to give it a cohesiveness, while others I'll feel will work better if they don't. With something like the short narrative poem I had a grand, self-expressive, allegorical theme in mind and I wanted a majestic form that would allow me creativity so I actually worked out the form, themes, and motifs beforehand and then as I wrote it I found ways to work them into it and then I heavily edited it even after "finishing". But I also like writing surrealism where I just write whatever strikes my mind with no thought to form, content, or coherency.

I think endeavoring to "fix" yourself into one mode of creation is incredibly limiting. The greatest poets tended to have a mastery over all aspects of the creative process and I think it behooves any poet who wants to get better to challenge themselves to create in different ways, with different focuses. It's like how I notice so few young poets who compose in classic forms and I think ignoring formal poetry is a mistake because there are all kinds of creative possibilities inherent in forms. If you look at most great artists they all had to be creative inside limitations. In classical music these forms were considered essential to musical expression, for instance. Poetry is (somewhat) the same way. While free-verse is fine and works perfectly for some poems, others might be expressed in other ways.

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Originally Posted by MdSA

Hey folks.

Since I like writing poetry a lot, especially in French, I'm actually wondering :
How do YOU personally go on about writing poetry? Make a huge draft, assemble your ideas first? Wonder about the problems of the world, sit at a café and just look at people? Or simply let the words pour out of your head, as it were? It seems that I just can't adjust inspiration and method.

And also : Do you give special attention to alliterations, assonances? Do you really polish your words, try to put an iambic pentameter, and so on?

Thanks for your feedback, I think it would be highly instructive to me :)

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I experiment with different forms right now, especially ones borrowed from afar, and different styles and concepts, and see how they work in my own words. As for emphasis, well, I work at about 1-2 lines a week, so they tend to get polished quite a bit. Metrics though shouldn't be ignored, and neither emphasis on figures of speech - the way things are presented is essential.

I don't "go about it". I just do it. When it strikes me, when I have an explainable feeling, or an inexplicable one, or when the words cross my mind; I realize that the only imagination that is of much worth to anyone else is the imagination that is directed by its owner.

Once the words are on the paper, that is when you can practice your craft. Does it say what you want it to say, or does it merely speak of more than the sum of the words. The English language is both a mathematical science and art.

Sadly, I am not a poet but a short story writer. Hopefully, my advice can aid you in your journey. Poetry, is a reflection of human moods and emotions. Some of the best poetry has come from objects, people, suffering and the like. However, a strong and passionate feeling (positive or negative) must be present. Like take your despair over not being able to find motivation for example. How does that make you feel? Write about it. Or, what things do you like? However, try not to worry. If you worry then anything which may turn into an idea will be dispelled from your brain. Relax, it will come in time.

As to form, there are many. You must unearth the one which fits you. Read many poets such as Poe and Dickinson. Everything in life flows fourth upon self discovery, I believe. If you can discover yourself then the writing journey will be easier. Though being a writer is never easy.

Lastly, how to express the words properly so that the reader feels something is extremely difficult. I just write like I am having a spasm and then go back to fix the words. After it is all fixed I glisten it up. Read any poem you can get your hands on to and jot down words which appeal to you. That is another way. Believe me it helps. I do have a letter written from one of my favorite authors to another. I would love to type you out a copy. Email me if you'd like. My email address is in my profile.

Good luck to you!

I just write any old crap down & call it a poem! :eek:

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Originally Posted by Red-Headed

I just write any old crap down & call it a poem! :eek:

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:banana:I love your answer!:banana:

I'm not a writer or a poet, so maybe I will not provide the best answer. I have written some poems lately, so maybe I can draw on those recent experiences.

My poetry relies a lot on sound devices like assonance, consonance, and alliteration. I can't figure out metrics, so I just don't pay attention to those. For some reason I can't hear the stresses. Personally, I can't imagine that anyone couldn't make a poem with sound device. A lot of poetry I read doesn't seemed concerned with sound or is able to conceal this emphasis better than I can. I've heard so many people say poetry is meant to be spoken, but I don't think that is always true. Certain poems are meant to be spoken, others are meant to be looked at, or thought about.

Sometimes a first line will come to me, and I'll work on it until there is a "poem". I usually don't care what the line says, which is something I want to work on. Everything is based around sound, but I'm not masterful enough to use sound device and say what I want (although I'm not sure I have anything to say, and the idea that I should "write what I know" revolts me).

I've also written an ekphrastic poem, although I'm still amazed that this kind of poem is considered actual poetry. The concept of found poetry strikes me as odd, too.

Lately, I've been amazed at the tug of war between what you say and how you say it. I've always been concerned with how I say things, but at university, we don't even study how authors say things, but what they say. All my English classes are about issues of society (feminism, class distinction, gender issues, family). Honestly, it just makes me sick.

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Originally Posted by Granny5

:banana:I love your answer!:banana:

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It's more true than you think... :banana: ;)

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Originally Posted by shortstoryfan

I can't figure out metrics, so I just don't pay attention to those. For some reason I can't hear the stresses.

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It has always fascinated me that classical Greek metre is often applied to English, essentially a Germanic language. Apparently we are not the only ones who find this odd. I have always had an interest in G.M. Hopkins' views on metre.

They can be complex. Essentially he believed that in common English only two metric feet are really possible: The accentual trochee & dactyl.

These can then be combined to create what he called a logaoedic rhythm. Because this would be repetitive other ‘feet’ are interspersed between.

This gives an effect that Hopkins named ‘counterpoint’ (from the musical term). He believed that Milton was the true master of this rhythm, particularly in the choruses of his Sampson Agonistes.

I tend to agree with him a lot.


This blog may be helpful.

Now-a-days I write poetry less and prose more. In my childhood poetry was a great passion and I used to write poetry passionately. Poetry came spontaneously and effortlessly then. I never had to meditate on style, theme, substance, alliterations and the like nor I had to select a place like cafe or any other to sit at and ponder over. Anyplace and anytime was suitable for writing poems. I wrote tirelessly and then the greatest passion for me was versification and nothing could beat this interest of mine. I wrote volumes after volumes. I was a kid and have not understood the world well then. Everything was beautiful and people were generous and the world was really a good place to live in. But time passed on and I had to undergo both ups and downs in the course of life and as I matured my style of writing poetry changed. I thought poetry must be not only the expression of exaltation when you look at the beauty of nature or natural objects. It must express something different, the pains, sufferings and the traumas people undergo around me. It must cover some other areas.

As a child I tried to rhyme my poems, and versification was a difficult. job.There were iambics, pentameters and the like. Gradually I switched to write free verse or poetry without rhymes and meters. I started thinking that poetry must be a medium to express something that go unsaid, unexpressed or the fact that poetry can express something more complex otherwise that go unexpressed became clear to me.

Now I write poetry fairly less and I do not write always and one of the things I feel essential in writing a good poem is inevitably inspiration.

Or take a leaf out of the Imagist's book.