Content

• Steps
• Part 1 of 3: Preparing to write a poem
• Part 2 of 3: Working on the poem
• Part 3 of 3: Final editing of the poem

Writing poems boils down to reflecting the state of your inner world or the world around you.Poems can be written about anything from love and loss to the rusted gates of an old farm. On the other hand, versification can seem like a difficult task, especially if you do not consider yourself a person gifted with a creative gift or capable of pouring poetic ideas left and right. However, with good inspiration and the right approach, even you will be able to write a poem that you can proudly share with your classmates or friends.

Steps

Part 1 of 3: Preparing to write a poem

1. 1 Practice writing exercises. A poem can start with a very small passage, or even with one line or two, which will appear in your head by itself, or with a visual picture that simply does not leave your head. You can find inspiration for writing a poem through the writing exercises and observing the world around you. As soon as you have inspiration, it will become easier for you to form your thoughts into appropriate poetic lines.
   • For example, you can use freewriting and write down all the ideas that come up in your head. Then the resulting lines or images from your notes can be used as sources of inspiration for writing your poem. In addition, you can use not only your own ideas, but also apply someone else's ready-made ideas.
   • You can also use brainstorming techniques such as preparing a mind map or listing images or ideas. These techniques can generate much-needed inspiration for versification.
2. 2 Get inspired by the world around you and those close to you. You can get inspiration from walking around the neighborhood or visiting a favorite place in your city. You can observe people sitting on benches in the park or walking along the pedestrian square in order to use the moments they saw as ideas for your poem.
   • You can try writing a poem about someone who plays an important role in your life, such as your mother or your best friend. The person himself can be a source of inspiration for a poem, which will describe his personal qualities or individual traits.
3. 3 Pick a specific topic or idea. You can start a poem by choosing a specific topic or idea that seems attractive or interesting to you. If you choose a specific topic or idea around which your poem will be built, then the poem will acquire a clearly defined goal. This will make it easier for you to narrow down the range of images and descriptions that can be used in the poem.
   • For example, you might decide to write a poem about "love and friendship." After that, you can try to remember specific moments from your personal life, when you had friendship or love feelings for someone, and also try to characterize love and friendship itself on the basis of your relationships with other people.
   • When choosing a topic or idea, try to be specific, as this will help make your poem less vague and incomprehensible. For example, instead of taking a topic as broad as “loss,” try something narrower, such as “losing a child” or “losing a best friend.”
4. 4 Choose a poetic form. Give direction to your creativity by choosing a specific poetic form for it. There are many different poetic forms that can be used, ranging from white verse to sonnets and rhymed couplets. Pick one poetic form and stick to it throughout the poem to make it appear coherent in the eyes of the reader.
   • You can choose a short poetic form such as haiku, shinkwine, or graphic poetry.Then you can try experimenting with the chosen form and even enjoy overcoming the difficulties associated with a particular poetic form.
   • You can also lean towards funnier and more playful poetic forms like limericks (playful five lines) if your task is to write a fun poem. Or, you can turn to more lyrical poetic forms such as sonnets, ballads, or rhymed couplets to write a more dramatic or romantic poem.
5. 5 Read examples of poetry. To better understand how other authors write poetry, you can familiarize yourself with examples of their work. You have the opportunity to read poems in the same poetic form that interests you, or poems with the same themes and similar ideas that inspire you. You can also refer to the poems of well-known "classics" to get a better feel for the genre of poetry. For example, you can read the following:
   • "Ruslana and Lyudmila" by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin;
   • "Borodino" by Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov;
   • “Who Lives Well in Russia” by Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov;
   • “Vasily Terkin” by Alexander Trifonovich Tvardovsky;
   • "Radunitsa" by Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin;
   • “Selected Poems” by Ivan Alekseevich Bunin;
   • “Poems about the Soviet passport” by Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.

Part 2 of 3: Working on the poem

1. 1 Use specific imagery. Avoid abstract imagery and stick to specific descriptions of people, places, and objects in your poem. It is always necessary to try to describe things using the five senses: taste, smell, touch, sight and hearing. Specific imagery will allow the reader to immerse themselves in the world of your poem and bring the lines to life in imagination.
   • For example, instead of describing feelings or pictures in abstract words, use specific words for this. Instead of the phrase “I was overwhelmed with happiness”, you can use more precise words to create specific images, for example, the phrase “My smile shone like fire”.
2. 2 Apply literary techniques. Literary devices such as metaphors and comparisons add variety and depth to poetry. With their help, you can make your poem special in the eyes of the reader and paint a detailed picture for him. Try to use various literary techniques in the poem so that it does not consist solely of metaphors or only comparisons.
   • Metaphor is an unusual way of comparing one subject to another. For example, as in the phrase “I was a birdie on the wire”.
   • Conventional matching compares one object to another using the like, like, and the like conjunctions. For example, “Lonely like a crow in a field” or “My heart is like an empty stage”.
   • You can also try to use such a literary technique as personification, when an object or idea is described using human qualities and traits. For example, "The car sank like a stone" or "My love is like a storm in a glass of water."
3. 3 Write so that the lines sound good. Poems are meant to be read aloud, so they need to be written with the sound in mind. Composing poetry with an eye to the sound will affect its structure as well as the words used. Notice how each line flows into the next, how placing individual words next to each other creates certain sounds or rhythms.
   • For example, you can compare the sound of the words “shine” and “shine”. The word “shines” is generally softer and gives the ear a feeling of warmth and softness. The word “sparkles” contains a hissing sound. This gives it a sharper and more rhythmic sound.
4. 4 Avoid clichés. Your poems will turn out to be noticeably more powerful if you abandon the use of clichés, which are phrases that have become so familiar to the general public that they have long since lost their original meaning.Get creative with the descriptions and imagery in your poem so that the reader is surprised and intrigued by your style. If you think that a certain phrase or figurative expression may be too familiar to the reader, replace it with something more unique.
   • For example, you might have noticed that in your poem, when describing a person, the phrase “Busy like a bee” was worn in. In this case, you can try to replace it with a more unique analogue, for example, the phrase “Her hands were not sitting idle” or “She had no equal in the kitchen.”

Part 3 of 3: Final editing of the poem

1. 1 Reread the poem out loud. Once you have a draft of the poem ready, you will need to read it out loud yourself. Pay attention to the sound of the lines. See how well one line flows into another. Keep a pen handy so you can mark any lines or words that sound confusing or strange.
   • You can also read the poem out loud to other people, including friends, family, or partners. Ask them to give feedback on the poem after the first listening. Find out if there are any phrases or lines that seem confusing or incomprehensible to them.
2. 2 Collect feedback on your poem. You can also share your poem with other poets to get their feedback and improve the work. For your part, you can join a group of aspiring poets and work together on your creativity. Or you can sign up for poetry lessons, where you work with your teacher and other aspiring poets to improve your skills. After receiving feedback about your poem from peers, you can use them to edit the work.
3. 3 Edit the poem. When you have collected enough feedback about your poem, you will need to edit it to get the best possible look. Based on the feedback, exclude confused and incomprehensible lines from the poem. Readily go for “deleting the dearest lines”, do not hold on to beautiful phrases just for the sake of simply including them in a poem. Make sure that each line contributes to the purpose, theme, or idea of ​​the poem.
   • Additionally, you need to go through the poem and rid it of clichés and famous phrases. It is also necessary to ensure that the spelling and grammar are observed in the poem.