The romantic poem- Getting started.

I think the hardest thing for every writer is how to get started on a new poem. You have something in your head, an idea but how do you make it go from an idea to something more? The first thing you have to decide is what type of poem you want to write. There are many different styles of poetry and no one is better than the other. Some poems rhyme, some poems don’t and there are many different types of rhyming and non-rhyming poetry. I will not give you an english lesson here… I will only tell you that you must decide where to go based on the mood of your poem. How do you want to express it? Do you want the words to create a “melodic” tone, something similar to a song verse, or would you rather a “narrative” tone, more like the spoken word?

Rhyming poems are beautiful in themselves as they are more like music to the ear, but rhyming poems must have a flow to them, or they don’t work. Also, like song lyrics, they almost always have a “hook” , a line that stands out from the rest of the poem or emphasises the title of the poem. They are also more rigid because in order to flow, they must have a structured number of syllables in each line. Free verse poems on the other hand also flow, but more in the sense that they convey a mood of romance rather than a melodic tone. Think of a romantic scene from a movie, the words spoken with passion by an actor or actress. Quite often they portray analogy ” your love is as a summers day” or descriptive text, ” I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach.” One way or the other, it is hard to get started until you have a direction in which you want to go. I will go into more depth on these two styles of poems in the next couple of posts.