Want to know how to write poetry? The first thing you have to do is write some. It isn’t important how it turns out. Your mistakes will become your teachers. Your writing will stimulate you to greater creativity. Just start writing. So, once you start the process, how do you improve it? Try these three rules.
1. Use adjectives less, nouns and verbs more. Which of theses is stronger: “She was as beautiful as a flower…” or “Roses wilted in shame as she passed by…”? “He looked at the depressing clouds…” or “He watched as dark clouds moved in, covering his sky…”?
2. Don’t tell the readers how to feel. Let the words elicit the emotions directly, without explaining. “The tragedy touched them all,” is more touching to the reader as “Men and women, doctor and workman… thirteen people looked upon the scene… with tears in their eyes.”
3. Use more dramatic and emotional words. Not all words are equal in their ability to “grab” a reader or elicit emotion. “Fell,” “take,” and “love,” will probably be weaker than “plunged,” “seized,” and “worship.”
Look at the following lines, written two ways. The second way applies the three rules above. (From the poem “Gratitude.”)
I think you’ll agree that the second version is better. Once again, if you want to know how to write poetry, you have to start writing. You can use these and other rules to help you, but remember that all rules in poetry need to be broken at times. Read your poems aloud to yourself and others as a final “test.”