Some Tips for Poetry

I enjoy reading poetry, because I feel like poetry, like writing, really gets out a mood. Better, poetry allows you to access a feeling and extract the pure essence without the set up. You can get to the meat of the point. 

Poetry doesn't have to be deep, or about war, or hatred, or some other insane principles. Poetry can, and has been, about walks late at night, autumn days. In fact, some of the most popular poems were about exactly that, especially ones from Romanticism. 

I tend to think that a lot of people have this idea that poems are inherently pretentious or overwritten. This isn't true, and is a bit of an immature viewpoint on a literary art. Though in all fairness, they may have seen some more amateur poems.

Usually the problem with people's character "themes" or poems, is that they don't know what a poem is. A poem is not writing down pretty stuff, hoping that that works. Poems have a very specific standard of writing. Here's some tips to get started.

Let's start off with the technicals. 

Meter

So last night I wrote up a poem spontaneously, and here's what we got: 

(Cyras and Rosod:

Trifling and Shifting

Like a potato thrown around

Your blame is cast upon myself

And yet you take part of the piece

How could I ever bear the brunt

Of something I never had

And how could I lose

You who I never had) 

This is, not a very good poem.

There's not really a rhythm or flow here yet. When read, this reads like: 

 

Trifling and Shifting

Like a potato thrown around

Your blame is cast upon myself

And yet you take part of the piece

So there's nothing intrinsically wrong with whacky beat from time to time, but this stumbles. You can't really sing with this, or recite this without sounding awkward.

Poems usually have a beat, a rhythm. This is achieved by feet. A foot is a series of stress and unstressed syllables. Here are a few examples.

Iambs are unstressed and stressed. These are associated with the beating of a heart. Pre-SENT. 

Trochees are stressed, then unstressed. PRE-sent. Trochees are usually known as feminine versus masculine Iambs.

Anapest: An anapest is two unstressed syllables and one stressed syllable. 

"Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;"

Question from @KIERAL.

Do you spend a while being picky or do the words kinda just come naturally sometimes? When you're like, not improvising I mean

Self: 

Yes to both tbh.

A lot of times I have to be very picky, but you naturally speak in Iambic pattern so sometimes you can just belt a line.

Like uh, "how dare you fucking rip my soul apart." Iambic Pentameter line right there.

Question:

Wow

That's actually pretty cool.

 

Self

Yeah so you can just belch out phrases. I might put that in examples.

 

A series of feet is what makes a poem. Iambic Pentameter is a series of five iambs, or five unstressed and stressed syllables.

An Irish Airman foresees his Death

By W.B. Yeats

I know that I shall meet my fate

Somewhere among the clouds above;

Those that I fight I do not hate, 

Those that I guard I do not love; 

My country is Kiltartan Cross,

My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,

No likely end could bring them loss

Or leave them happier than before.

Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,

Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,

A lonely impulse of delight

Drove to this tumult in the clouds;

I balanced all, brought all to mind,

The years to come seemed waste of breath,

A waste of breath the years behind

In balance with this life, this death.

With four iambs in each line, this is iambic tetrameter. That word tetrameter means four feet of iambs. So each line is ba-BUM ba-BUM ba-BUM ba-BUM.

But wait, "a lonely impulse of delight" isn't in Iambs. We have an iamb (a lone), an iamb ("ly im"), then a phyrric ("pulse of") and finally, another iamb (delight).

The simple explanation is that you don't have to put everything in complete meter all the time, and doing so can even make a poem seem sing-song or seuss-like (A good thing if you're going for that). A lot of times, you can mix with the beat. 

In this example, there's almost a sighing breath when you say the line. There's three unnaccented syllables in a row, as he remembers pleasantly how he had fun joining.

Antigonish [I met a man who wasn’t there]

Hughes Mearns

  

Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
I wish, I wish he’d go away…

Even read in monotone there's still power.

Now free verse is an acceptable method of writing. That's where instead of worrying about beat, you just start writing, but even then, without a rhythm, the poem will sound like verbal garbage.

Meaning

Poems usually have a deeper meaning. Instead of saying something directly, a poem is more like trying to emote something through words. Like trying to explain a concept to someone who's never heard that before, and trying to emphathize with someone who knows all too well at the same time.

"Darkness Pays Orr A Visit" (A Guild Wars 2 Poem).

Darkness pays Orr a visit.

With billowing robes of blackened silk,

She beckons us, arms outstretched.

I see my brothers walk forward, greet her as a friend.

So many fold themselves into her embrace.

And even over their cries, and the roars of the beasts,

I hear Darkness call to me with a promise.

But I close myself. I will not join her yet.

Another call is more beautiful,

And I will chase it back to you.

So there's no traditional meter here (in fact this does actually sound like verbal garbage when reading imo) but there is meaning. Without knowing the game, you get the idea this is a war, and the brothers are armymen all falling to their deaths and a man who refuses for a lover.

Now here's Break the Chain, from Fleetwood Mac.

Listen to the wind blow (btw, double stress is a spondee.)

Watch the sun rise

Running in the shadows

Damn your love damn your lies

 

And if you don't love me now

You will never love me again

I can still hear you saying 

You would never break the chain

Now they could just say: "I'm staying for the band." 

Instead however, the wind blowing and sun rising implies a more subtle and still atmosphere, however running in the shadows means moving around without speaking. Then finally, there's a snap with the "damn your love, damn your lies."

The deeper meaning is "screw you for being a bad husband, also, I'm only staying with you because of the band." The band is referred to as a chain. Chains link, but at the same time, they are also cold, hard, and metal.

Poetry is often about indirectly saying something that cannot be said straightaway. When writing a poem, think about how you can say this without just putting down "I'm sad because I ran out of cake."

Imagery: 

Another winter in a summer's town.

Another winter
The renters go home
The maple goes from crimson to brown
Oh God
My God
Another winter
In a summer town

You can hear the "oh god, my god" as interrupters with how short they are. They give a clear desperation, while we get the idea of the trees slowly dying. 

A winter in a summer's town sounds unfathomable. Basically saying even a town that's warm and pleasant ends up falling in ice, and... with time.

The beach is empty
They cover the pools
The patio umbrellas come down
Oh God
My God
Another winter
In a summer town

This goes more about the idea of everybody leaving. The winter is metaphorical and physical, meaning how now poverty is entering the area. The beach is empty, as in there's no tourists. The pools are covered as nobody is swimming in winter.

One little leaf adrift in the breeze
Refuses to fall from the sky
Blown by the wind, it clings to the trees
Unwilling to wither and die
The summer’s over
But I’m still a girl
Cavorting in my carnival crown
From blossom to blossom, I buzz like a bee
Then glance in the mirror, and who do I see?
A middle aged woman inhabiting me
Because it’s winter
In a summer town

"One little leaf adrift in the breeze," is a sign of hope. We go down towards the girl in her "carnival crown". She's still dressing like she's young, but as soon as she glances in the mirror she sees the truth, a middle aged woman.

The imagery is heavy, going with flowers as a person withering. The seasons alter as does the wealth of a person who was at top of the money game. 

When writing a poem, think about what makes for a much stronger image. Poems force you into the present, into that moment. 

In Summary

 Let's look at the Raven. 

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door—
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door—
               Only this and nothing more."

The final line is only 4 stresses, but the rest have 8 stresses. 

We have strong imagery (midnight, tapping, forgotten lore). 

We have strong depth (forgotten lore being a symbol for sense, someone close to sleeping like they're stuck in an eternal dream.) 

We have rhythm. 

I don't think these are the only three elements that make a poem, but they are amongst the most important.