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Painting and Sculpting with Words: How to Write Poetry
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Esther Spurrill Jones has been writing poetry for most of her life. She has created in this volume a guide that anyone can use to get started writing poetry. Even if you've never written a line in your life, you can use this book to start crafting poems. From rhythm to rhyme to metaphor and simile, this guide will walk you through the process from the very beginning.
Author
Esther Spurrill Jones
I learned to read when I was four years old, and I began writing soon thereafter. My first story was about a girl and her horse—it was awful, but my parents loved it, which encouraged me to continue. My favourite genres are of the fantastical and magical, where the mundane rules of real life don't apply.
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Painting and Sculpting with Words - Esther Spurrill Jones
Painting and Sculpting with Words
How to Write Poetry
By Esther Spurrill Jones
Copyright 2020 Esther Spurrill Jones
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Table of Contents
Introduction
How to Read a Poem
Got Rhythm?
Rhyme or Reason
Alliteration and Assonance
Metaphor and Simile
How to Write a Ballad
How to Write a Sonnet
How to Write a Kyrielle
How to Write a Triolet
How to Write a Villanelle
How to Write a Rondeau
How to Write a Cinquain
How to Write an Acrostic
How to Write a Blitz Poem
How to Write Limerick
How to Write Haiku
How to Write Tanka
How to Edit a Poem
About the Author
Introduction
Anyone can write a poem. But it’s not so easy to write a good poem. I’ve been writing poetry for over thirty years, and I’ve picked up a few tips and tricks along the way. Even if you’ve never written a poem in your life, these should help you get started. And, if you’re already a poet, who knows? You might still find something here to help you improve your work.
Read poetry, especially the good stuff. The masters are a good place to start: Shakespeare, Keats, Dickinson, Frost, Blake, etc. Figure out what kind/style you like, and read a lot of it. Seriously, the best way to learn how to write is to read.
It doesn’t have to rhyme. You already know this if you read poetry (and if you don’t read poetry, go back to step 1). Free verse can be very powerful, but I would recommend learning some forms to get a strong foundation in the rules
before you start breaking them.
It does have to have some kind of rhythm. Yes, even free verse. It doesn’t have to be iambic or trochaic or whatever, but it does need a kind of musicality. Otherwise, it’s just a prose passage broken up into weird lines. Read it out loud if you’re having trouble hearing
it.
Rhyme should not prevail over meaning. Nothing makes a poem sound more awkward and amateur than a word that was obviously used solely for how it rhymes. If you’re writing a rhyming poem, and you can’t find a rhyme that works, go for a near rhyme, or rewrite the line you’re trying to rhyme to. Meaning always always trumps rhyme.
Try different forms. Don’t get stuck in a rut of always writing the same form. Challenge yourself to stretch and grow. Resources like ShadowPoetry.com can help you find new forms to try.
Keep writing. The more you write, the better your poems will be. As in everything, practice makes you better. And don’t get discouraged if your earlier attempts are not as good as you hope; keep writing — you will get better.
How to Read a Poem
First, let me make it clear that if you don’t enjoy reading something,
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