POETRY LESSON 03:
POETRY WRITING CLASSES

POETRY LINES?

*   WHY DO YOU NEED STRUCTURE ANYWAY?
*   SAMPLES OF POETRY STRUCTURE
*   PUNCTUATION IS STRUCTURE
*   BEGINNING, MIDDLE AND ENDING OF A POEM ARE STRUCTURE
*   RHYMES OR NO RHYMES ARE STRUCTURE.
*   METER: STRESSES MIXED WITH UNSTRESSED IS STRUCTURE
*   FEELING THE POETIC METER
*   MORE POETRY LINE TIPS
*   TITLES ARE STRUCTURE
*   HOW TO WRITE FREE VERSE POEM STRUCTURE
*   FASTEST WAY TO LEARN POETRY STRUCTURE
*   THE LINE OF POETRY


*   WHY DO YOU NEED STRUCTURE ANYWAY?

Without structure you might as well write some random short sentences, one after another and call it a poem.  That is incredibly easy to do.  No one may understand your poem, but it is very easy to say those famous two words "I'm finished."

Without structure, you might as well write out some prose sentences in a paragraph and then just break those sentences into shorter lengths at odd or unique places and call it a poem.  Most true poets reading it will recognize it's not a poem though. 

Without structure, you skip having to think about your poem.  What your poem means.  Why you are writing it?  What effect your poem is suppose to have?  Whether it reaches your audience probably is of no importance. 

So yeah, you need structure to make the poem shine, stick in the reader's mind, to make sense to someone other than yourself.  Think of structure as your friend.  You can write better, faster, more understandable poetry with structure than without.  If you get good writing poetry without structure, you'll find out you are just subconsciously using structure any way; so you might as well use structure willfully, consciously.


*   SAMPLES OF POETRY STRUCTURE

LINE:  A short complete or not complete sentence, sentence lengths.
My love is blue unlike the rose.
My love is blue, so blue

STANZA:  A group of sentences forming a complete movement/phase or meaning in the poem or even entire poem.  Stanza have names by the number of lines they contain.  This has nine lines.  Couplets, for example, contains two lines.  Some stanzas have a number of lines and a rhyme scheme or format.  Some stanzas are metered, stresses and unstressed syllables.  Stanzas can do amazing things and some stanzas are better for other things than other stanzas.  Stanzas can rhyme or not rhyme.  Stanzas come in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or more patterns.


Lines         Stanza Name - The line is a  unit of time.
1 Monoline -       states one thought
2 Couplets -       a comparison between things.
3 Tercet/Triplet - a moving stanza a transition.  This is like a horses gallop.
4 Quatrains -      This is like a solid block foundation, one stone, two stone, and
                                       so forth.  Complete deep thought can be put in the quadrain
5 Cinquains -      introduces more complex thoughts adding the twist of curosity.
6 Sestet/Sextet
7 Septen
8 Octave
9

Check out my blog and click on the Bob Byways link under the blog for "Everything You Wanted to Know About Poetry and were afraid to asks for further explanation of these poetry terms."


Syllables are beats
Stressed or Accented syllables are long (=) or hard (=)
Unstressed or unaccented syllables are short (*) or soft (*)

Foot Per Line    SyllablesLine Meter Length
1 2Monometer
2 4Dimeter
3        6Trimeter
4 8Tetrameter
510Pentameter
612Hexameter
714Heptameter
816Octomer

Sound of Poem emerges from:
Meter structure,
Structure in form,
Rhyme
Alliteration -- similar repeated letters, flicker, flutter, flounder
Assonance -- vowel sounds
Repeated patterns and words


My love is blue unlike the rose.
I doesn't bloom and spread
It's wings.  It doesn't soar
High in the sky.  So why, O why
Should I follow the clouds,
Hoping for lofty, flowers to
Touch the ground.  My love
Floats away out of reach--
Unlike the red, red rose I seek.

Okay. That was a off-the-top-of-my-head poem.  It does contain structure beyond the stanza formation though.  Paraphrasing a poem is a good way to understand the poem structure.

Rosy Cloud Poem
(c) by Cupideros September 25, 2007

My love is blue unlike the rose.   
  (opening line, topic)

It doesn't bloom and spread
It's wings.  It doesn't soar

High in the sky.  So why, O why
  (Peak of the poem)


Should I follow the clouds,
Hoping for lofty, flowers to
  (Resignation to loss)

Touch the ground.  My love
Floats away out of reach--
  (Pinning what could have been)

Unlike the red, red rose I seek.
  (ending poem and thoughts)



PUNCTUATION IS STRUCTURE             Do awesome things with punctuation
Punctuation in middle of line.                    High in the sky.  So why, O why
Punctuation near beginning of line.            True.  Love is not for the shy.
Punctuation at end of line.                        Should I follow the clouds,
Punctuation avoided and thought
    not fully complete (Enjambent line)       Touch the ground.  My love




BEGINNING, MIDDLE AND ENDING OF A POEM ARE STRUCTURE

In the beginning, something starts the poet speaking, a growing learning situation.

In the middle, something continues poet speaking, but something important achieves consciousness.

In the end, something discovered can it be brought down to earth, to reality for the rest of us.



RHYMES OR NO RHYMES ARE STRUCTURE.  RHYME WORDS IMPORTANT WORDS!
End rhymes - Wonder no more/from your far away shore.
Internal Rhymes - The sun fell like a bell's last evening ring.
Beginning Rhymes - Warm was the hand/Armed with love.

Heroic verse is frive foot iambic or iambic pentameter
Blank verse is unrhymed verse
Heroic blank verse is unrhymed five foot iambic pentemter
Feminine Rhyme- rhymes of more than one syllable    dying/ flying
Masculine Rhyme – rhyms of one syllable    say/may

End rhymes- Rhymes used at the end of the line
Internal Rhymes – Rhymes within the line.
Ghost Rhymes – Two end-rhymes words make up 1,2,3,4 combined words tht deepen meaning to sentence and the poem.

1. _______________chess
2. ---------------------------loss    both produce either less or closs.
3. _______________fire
4. _______________pair      both produce either fair or pyre.

Semantic Rhymes – two rhymes words are brought into sound linkage and semantic meaning.  Linkage of schools/tools or Same/name) for example.  They must be anthesis or any other sound of rhyme must echo the sense of the rhyme.



METER: STRESSES MIXED WITH UNSTRESSED IS STRUCTURE.
FOUR TYPES OF RHYTHM METERS IN POETRY

1. STRESS METER: PURE ACCENTED METER.  A certain number of stressed/ accented syllables per line.  These stressed words carry the main meaning for the line and poem.  For example 3 or 4 stressed below:

*      *     =    *       *        =       *    *    =       *         =
Tis the MIDDLE of NIGHT by the CASTLE CLOCK

*       *      =         *    *    =        *       *     =         *         =
And the OWLS have AWAKENED the CROWING COCK

  *       =        *       =
Tu WHITT Tu WHOO!

  *        =       *     =     *       =       *        =
And HARK AGAIN the CROWING COCK


   *        =        *  =    *     =
HOW DROWSILY IT CREW.


2. PULSATION BY ACCENT EMPHASIS FALL ON THE ENTIRE WORD..  These words carry the meaning.
Down in the black, down in the sea.
Up in the sky, Moon and Mercury.


3.  SYLLABIC METER: PURSE SYLLABIC METER. 
A certain number of syllables (stressed or unstressed per line.  For example Decasyllabic

Lines 1-10 are all 10 syllables or

Lines 1 is 5 syllables
Line 2 is  7 syllables                 Stanza
Line 3 is 10 syllables


Keep all stanzas the same syllablic count
Use odd # syllables count and enjambents to hide rhymes.  A sophisticated free verse.

A. Counting the number of syllables in each line or half line.
B. Counting the number of spaces in each line or half line.
C. Counting the number of verbs in each line or half line.
D. Counting the number of nouns in each line or half line.
E. Counting the number of particular vowels in each line or half line.
F. Counting the number of particular letters in each line or half line.
G. Counting the number of words in each line or half line.
H. Counting the number of _____ in each line or half line.
I. Counting the number of _____ in each line or half line.
J. Counting the number of _____ in each line or half line.


4.  STRESS-SYLLABIC METER:
A certain number of stressed and syllables in a repeated fixed pattern.  For example. Iambic Pentameter line below.

  *   =     *   =     *     =     *   =      *    =
All hail| to you |my wholly| worthy| friends!


FEELING THE POETIC METER
Choose a poetic line and nod with  your head or count out with your fingers or tap it out with  your feet. 
Keep all the lines the same poetic line.
Regularity of poetic lines makes it poetry.


*  MORE POETRY LINE TIPS

1) Begin the poetry line with important words to your poem.
2) End the poetry line with important words to your poem.
3) Watch the middle of the line.  Put good words in the middle.


*  TITLES ARE STRUCTURE
 
Go for three or four words or less.  First try to find these words inside your poem.  A good title can help you structure and write your poem.  Don't give the entire poem away in your title.  You hint at the poem's meaning or content.  You suggests enough emotional content about the poem. This is after all the first thing the reader hears and sees when reading your poem.  Whether before or after the poem is done, give a lot of thought to your poem's title.

You can have one line or some lines or one stanza represent a thought, place, mood, time.
Another way to get good titles is noun plus a verb plus another word of any sort.  For example, The Good Wife.    Good is verb.  Wife is noun.  The is preposition.


*   HOW TO WRITE FREE VERSE POEM STRUCTURE

If writing Free Verse is your aim, read all of Amy Lowell's poem. 
Now read them all again! 
She is the originator of Free Verse and probably the last person to write Free Verse.  Most Free Verse today is not Free Verse.   Free Verse is not just a prose paragraph broken up at quirky line break with a pithy point of discovery at the end.

Free Verse has a upward spiraling rhythm.  Imagine a slinky toy walking down the stairs.  Now imagine a slinky toy walking up the stairs!  A slinky walking up the stairs is true Free Verse.  Or imagine rhythm gymnastics' ribbon baton ribbon baton ribbon baton twirling upward!  Free Verse should still have a rhythm, sounds, beauty, content and all the rest.


A Winter Ride
 
Who shall declare the joy of the running!
Who shall tell of the pleasures of flight!
Springing and spurning the tufts of wild heather,
Sweeping, wide-winged, through the blue dome of light.
Everything mortal has moments immortal,
Swift and God-gifted, immeasurably bright.

So with the stretch of the white road before me,
Shining snowcrystals rainbowed by the sun,
Fields that are white, stained with long, cool, blue shadows,
Strong with the strength of my horse as we run.
Joy in the touch of the wind and the sunlight!
Joy! With the vigorous earth I am one.

                                      --Amy Lowell



*   FASTEST WAY TO LEARN POETRY STRUCTURE

Write form poetry.  Yep.  Sonnets, Villanelles, Pantoums and the like.  By writing form poetry you will automatically be learning poem structures.  Never mind others have created them.  If you write enough form poetry, you'll find you can still say what you feel and think.

The point is structure takes learning and great poetry always has good structure!

Those two sample poems I just wrote are free verse, but they have structure.  Once you learn structure you will find your Free Verse Poetry FREED UP!  You will find many more ways to write free verse.

The second best way is when you read a poem, stop and asks yourself where is the architecture, the structure of the poem.  Examine it closely it.  So many stanzas, lines, rhymes or no rhymes, beats/pulsations, is it metered or not, what concrete words, how many abstract words, how many metaphors, similes?


*  THE LINE OF POETRY

THE LINE OF POETRY

The line of poetry is lift and wings
She's vine and branch to life's tree.
She's sign and olive to earthly queens.
The line of poetry how true she sings.

The line of poetry built by words.
Those feathery cords and shallow fords
Enable ideas and views to wallow
On hills and in valleys to shout the truth.

The line of poetry is hawk and dove.
Unable to pine in heaven above
It pulls us down to gawk and spiral
Helix and mind and bind our feet
Until we cry, cry for spiritual relief.

The line of poetry those dancing dames
All lined up, locked arm to arm
Kicking legs up, in the nightclub air
Pitching thrashing words with flair.

We cannot forget a beautiful line
Of shapely words naughty and divine.

We know not how our true dreams
Come into being.  Tossed on seams
Mental threads woven by Goddesses
And Gods, but we love their silk and milk--
Their sweet smooth lines of poetry.

What we know is inspiration, intuition,
Imagination, content, rhythm and form
Bring about heavenly expressive cloth
Through the words and lines of poetry.

Ta TUM, Ta TUM, TUM Ta Ta
Ta TUM, Ta TUM, TUM Ta Ta
TUM Ta, Ta TUM, TUM Ta TUM
Ta TUM Ta, TUM TUM, Ta Ta
Make a few lines of poetry.

O you words first play albatross;
How dare you keep me at a lost?
When I seek to soar and fly aloft,
On the wing-filled lines of poetry.

And you castled walls on said hill
What have I about you to now spill?
But King and Rook must pass one
Another and words become supreme
Through the simple lines of poetry.

Let the light shake, let the sound fall
Silent upon the inner ear enthralled
With visual revelatory, pounds of poetry.

I shall not leap, nor weap, nor fall
Into a heap of huddle procrastination
Because enemy or time distracts and calls.
I shall put on words and lines of poetry.

Experiment with the long and short.
Find the rhythm in the meanings port.
For words seek divine escape
Into the minds of this human race
Through the lines of poetry.

Make each line tell a scene,
A piece of dialogue or setting's beam,
A character's true angst and love,
In conjunction with her fellow man.

If the line doesn't work swich it around.
Forget your pride and shift unbound.
Find the place to speak spell-bound,
Even if it is a short line of poetry.

Select certan letters PVB or PVF.
Find combination giving you stealth
To charm eye and ear and tongue.
Write so even Stars, Moon and Sun
Cannot forget your lines of poetry.

Syllabic or pulsation or meter beats.
Syllabic-Meter drums will do as well.
Just find your individual Ta-Tum
And follow it with lines of poetry.

First subject, then your specific verb.
Write more for you day and not for pay.
Spend time in the Zeitgeist urge.
For there you'll pen fine lines of poetry.

Write when all the birds begin to whistle.
Write when the snow covers the land.
Write when the children go swimming.
Write when the trees are growing gold,
Write, write mine precious lines of poetry.

If you miss these times, worry not a wit.
For more shall visit, bring a better fit.
Remember the door to poetry moves.
You may enter in a different place.
No matter, for you will find the groove
And shake covered dust, replace
Old tracks by your new lettered brew.

When you meet Giantess Piocaellrue
Whom I have met.  She's *Klodiesq poetry.
She guards all unpen poetry books
Stacked forty five miles sky high,
Do not forget to give her monthly due
Or by her breastplate and shield, she
Will surely blind you from any looks
Into future rind kinds of poetry.

In conclusion I've told you word truths,
And line truths to build your treasure.
Forget trying to write the immortal poem.
Forget trying out do past master poets.
Just strive with all your soul to write
First best words and you will eventually
Write immortal lines of poetry.

© Cupideros, Saturday, 04.11.09

*Klodi is a beautiful Russian Female Model on Deviantart.com


 
SO GET OUT THERE AND PUT PEN/PENCIL TO PAPER
OR COMPUTER KEYBOARD TO SCREEN AND WRITE YOUR POEM!






This page was last updated: September 3, 2009
Paraphrasing of Rosy Cloud Poem

love is abstract so i make it concrete blue and contrast it against the famed red rose.

My love is not growing and flying high


We like to think in love the sky is the limit, and the poet ponders this emotionally with the two why's and O.

Perhaps he reaches too high, or his love is unreturned, or his love is gone away for a short time.


Whatever the case, like most of us, he wants something practical, personal grounded, real.


Real like the famed red rose of love.



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