Poetry creation manifests in two forms: the simplicity of rhyming words or the intricate composition of lines, stanzas, and rhyming schemes.
Poetry unlocks boundless creative potentials, and once you grasp the diverse techniques and styles available, you can fashion your own distinct expression of existence—a poem that captivates your reader.
A Glimpse into Poetry.
The history of poetry is as intricate as the art itself, triggering numerous debates throughout the centuries regarding its definition. Poetry’s origins trace back to the oral tradition, where it primarily served didactic and entertainment purposes in the form of ballads. Shakespeare popularized the Sonnet—a poetic structure that harmoniously blends narrative and lyrical elements. The advent of the printing press and the rise of books elevated poetry to a revered literary style.
So, what truly defines a poem?
Is a poem merely a static literary creation bound by specific rhyming patterns, prescribed language usage, and rigid structural formats? Traditionalists argue that a poem must adhere to strict rhyming patterns, with each page adorned by four-lined stanzas cascading down. Rebellious modernists counter that rules exist to be shattered, proclaiming that crafting a poem is an unbounded and unrestricted endeavor driven solely by the artist’s whims.
The answer lies within this statement: a poem embodies the pinnacle of creative expression. What are your thoughts? Does a poem surpass a short story in its ability to articulate a writer’s emotions, thoughts, and experiences of the world?
In the 19th century, classical poet and critic Mathew Arnold defined a poem as the “most beautiful, impressive, and most widely effective mode of saying things, and hence its importance…” (Knickerbocker 1925, p. 446). Yet, the art of composing a poem encompasses much more.
A poem allows the poet to divulge their thoughts or life experiences to the reader through a heightened use of language that resonates with emotions. It serves as an invitation from the poet to the reader, urging them to embark on a journey of exploration of ideas. Ultimately, the poet endeavors to design their flawless form of creative expression, engaging the reader and evoking a response.
Here are seven techniques or tools that can aid you in crafting a poem that enthralls your reader:
Within your toolbox lies an array of techniques and poetic devices that enable you to effectively convey your thoughts, feelings, and worldly experiences, such as:
1. Harmonious sounds—a clever fusion of alliteration and assonance (repetition of consonant and vowel sounds)—creating internal rhymes that orchestrate music within our minds when the poem is read aloud. For instance, assonance can engender internal rhyme, as illustrated by Theodore Roethke’s poetic line: “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow…”
2. Enjambment—strategic line breaks that establish meter and rhythm, accentuating specific phrases.
3. Imagery—depicting vivid descriptions to paint word pictures. Concrete images, such as cat, house, sun, rain, engage our senses, while abstract images convey concepts we comprehend but cannot perceive or touch, like knowledge, freedom, or justice. Abstract images possess both conceptual and emotional dimensions.
4. Metaphor/Simile—figures of speech that unveil hidden resemblances, comparing ideas for poetic impact.
5. Rhyme—words or lines that conclude with identical sounds. As Robert Frost wrote: “Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village, though…”
6. Tone—a distinct voice, whether melancholic, joyous, pensive, determined by precise word choices. Here is an excerpt from Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Departure”:
I wish I could walk till my blood should spout,
And drop me, never to stir again,
On a shore that is wide, for the tide is out,
And the weedy rocks are bare to the rain.
But dump or dock, where the path I take
Brings up, it’s little enough I care,
And it’s little I’d mind the fuss they’ll make,
Huddled dead in a ditch somewhere.
7. A poem embodies a vibrant and versatile art form, encompassing various styles of composition—Free verse, which defies traditional rhyming stanzas, meter, and rhythm, or an Elegy, a lament or poignant remembrance of a person or event.
Naturally, these techniques represent merely a fraction of the poet’s arsenal, some of which can be employed in storytelling, yet they distinctly belong to the realm of poetry.
Poetry acquaints us with the beauty and potency of language, celebrating the richness of the written word. By skillfully employing an assortment of poetic techniques, a writer discovers unbounded freedom in expressing thoughts, ideas, and emotions.
John Redmond characterizes a poem not solely as a structure of words conforming to rules and specific forms, but rather as an experiment with existence, possessing its own personality and value. He states, “…any good poem should make us feel like explorers of a new planet, setting out on a momentous adventure…[a] good poem will try to maintain the openness, the sense of possibility, which every reader feels when they open a book for the first time” (2006, p. 2).
To preserve this openness and sense of possibility, poets must consider the reader when crafting their poems, employing language and imagery that resonate, enabling readers to join them on the journey of exploration.
Ultimately, a poem not only serves as a conduit for self-expression but also imparts novel insights, captivating our imaginations and evoking deep emotions.