How to Write a Poem

Poetry is a way of expressing your inner and outer world. A poem can be about anything from love to loss to a rusty gate on an old farmhouse. Composing a poem can be difficult, especially if you’re not naturally creative or bursting with poetic ideas. However, with the right inspiration and direction, you will be able to write a poem that you can proudly share with everyone in your class or friends.

Table of Contents

Start a poem

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Learning to write. A poem can come from a short piece of poetry, a line or two from unknown sources, or an image that keeps popping up in your mind. You can find inspiration for poems in the world around you and practice writing. Once inspired, you can form and organize ideas into a poem. ^{[1] X Research Source}

For example, you can use a theme for freewriting. Then, use verses or images from the freewrite manuscript as inspiration for the poem. You can use existing writing themes or create your own.
You can try brainstorming methods like mind maps or list images/ideas. These methods can help you find inspiration for a poem.

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Get inspired by the living environment and what is close to you. You can become full of ideas by walking around your neighborhood or favorite spot in the city. You can also sit on a bench in a park or public square and use moments of observation as inspiration to write poetry.

Try writing a poem about someone important in your life, such as your mother or a close friend. These people are your inspiration, you can choose their qualities and traits to form a character.

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Choose a specific topic or idea. You can start a poem by focusing on a particular idea or topic that you are passionate about or interested in. By choosing a specific theme and idea, you create a poem that has a clear purpose or intention. This can make it easier for you to narrow down the images and expressions you want to use in the poem. ^{[2] X Research Source}

Let’s say you decide to write a poem on the subject of “love and friendship”. You will reflect on specific moments of love and friendship that you have experienced in your life, as well as your conception of love and friendship based on your relationships with others. .
Try to choose a topic or idea that is very specific to avoid feeling vague or unclear to the reader. For example, instead of choosing a generic “loss” topic, you should choose something more specific, such as “the pain of losing a child” or “losing a close friend.”

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Choose poetry. Streamline your creativity by choosing a poem genre. There are many different forms of poetry that you can apply, from free verse or hexagon to sonnet (a form of western verse, originating in Italy) or rhyming couplet (consisting of one or more stanzas, each stanza). is a pair of lines with similar structure). You can choose a form of poetry that you find easy to use, such as free verse, or, try your hand at a more difficult form, like a sonnet. Decide on a poetic form and follow that structure so that the poem feels appealing to the reader. ^{[3] X Research Sources}

There are many options for you to choose from: short poems like haiku, cinquain, or shape poem. You can choose to play around with simple poetic forms or find the fun of challenging yourself with a difficult poetic structure.
In addition, if you want to compose a poem that brings laughter, a witty and humorous poetic form such as limetrick is also an option. In addition, more lyrical genres such as sonnets, ballads or rhyming couplet can help you create a moving and romantic poem.

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Read more examples of poetry. To get a better sense of what many other poets have been writing about, you can check out a series of examples below. You should read through a few works written in the same poetic form that you love or poems with the same theme/idea that you are looking for inspiration. Choose works that are well known and considered “classic” for a better sense of the genre. Eg:

“Kublai Khan” by Samuel Taylor Cperidge ^{[4] X Research Sources}
“Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman ^{[5] X Research Source}
“I measure every Grief I meet” by Emily Dickinson ^{[6] X Research Source}
“Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare ^{[7] X Research Sources}
“One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop ^{[8] X Research Sources}
“Night Funeral in Harlem” by Langston Hughes ^{[9] X Research Source}
“The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams ^{[10] X Research Source}
“The Tale of Kieu” by Nguyen Du

Write a poem

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Use specific images. Limited visual abstraction leads to confusing descriptions of people, places, and other subjects in the poem. When describing something, you should try to target the five senses: smell, taste, touch, sight and hearing. Using specific images will immerse the reader in the world of the poem and help the images come to life for them. ^{[11] X Research Source}

For example, to describe an emotion or image, instead of using abstract words, you should use more concrete words. Don’t just write, “I feel happy,” but apply specific words to create a clearer image like, “My smile is as bright as lightning.”

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Combined with rhetorical measures. Rhetorical devices such as metaphors and personifications will add color and depth to the poem. Applying these rhetorical devices will help your poem stand out and paint a more concrete picture with your readers. Use rhetoric throughout the poem and transform them so that your writing is not restricted to each metaphor or comparison. ^{[12] X Research Source}

Metaphor is using the name of one object as the name of another object in a surprising way. For example, “I am a bird perched on a wire”.
Comparative is comparing an object or object with another object or object by the association word “like” or “like”. For example, “She is as lonely as a crow in the field” or “My heart is like an empty stage”.
You can also use personification to describe an object or idea by human qualities or characteristics. For example, “The original well remembers the soldier” or “O buffalo, I told this Buffalo”, and so on.

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Write for the ears. Poetry is meant to be spoken out loud, so you should focus on how the poem sounds when you read it out loud. When you write for the ears, you will be free with the structure and choice of words in your poem. You have to arrange the words to create a good timbre and rhythm, making each line of poetry like pouring into the listener’s ears. ^{[13] X Research Source}

For example, to describe a dawn, you might find that the words “red” and “red” sound different even though the two words represent the same color. The word “red” has only one syllable and gives a rather vague feeling to the listener. “Red red” has two syllables, which when included in the verse paints a clearer picture of the shade of red.

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Avoid stereotypes. Your poetry will be clearer if you avoid stereotypes (expressions that are so familiar that they gradually lose meaning). Use new descriptions and images to make readers feel surprised and interested in your writing. If you feel that a certain phrase or image has become too familiar to your readers, replace it with a more unique expression. ^{[14] X Research Source}

For example, in the sentence “she works as hard as a bee,” you find yourself reusing the familiar image of “the bee” to describe a hard-working character in the poem. At this point, you can replace the stereotypical image with a different expression, like “her hands never rest” or “she crosses the kitchen with her feet.”

Publication of the poem

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Read the poem aloud. After you have finished your manuscript, you should read the poem aloud. Notice how the words in the poem sound when read. Notice how the sentence changes in each line of the poem. Have a pen handy to highlight any lines of poetry or words that sound odd or confusing. ^{[15] X Research Source}

In addition, you can also read the poem aloud to friends, family or colleagues. Ask them how they felt when they first heard the poem and see if they were confused or confused about certain lines or phrases.

Steps

Start a poem

Write a poem

Publication of the poem

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