Tip #1 Know Your Goal.

If you dont know where youre going, how can you get there?
You need to know what you are trying to accomplish before you begin any project. Writing a
poem is no exception.
Before you begin, ask yourself what you want your poem to do. Do you want your poem to
describe an event in your life, protest a social injustice, or describe the beauty of nature? Once
your know the goal of your poem, you can conform your writing to that goal. Take each main
element in your poem and make it serve the main purpose of the poem.
Tip #2 Avoid Clichs
Stephen Minot definesa clich as: A metaphor or simile that has become so familiar from
overuse that the vehicle no longer contributes any meaning whatever to the tenor. It
provides neither the vividness of a fresh metaphor nor the strength of a single unmodified
word.The word is also used to describe overused but nonmetaphorical expressions such as
tried and true and each and every' (Three Genres: The Writing of Poetry, Fiction and Drama,
405).
Clich also describes other overused literary elements. Familiar plot patterns and stock
characters are clichs on a big scale (Minot 148). Clichs can be overused themes, character
types, or plots. For example, the Lone Ranger cowboy is a clich because it has been used so
many times that people no longer find it original.
A work full of clichs is like a plate of old food: unappetizing.
Clichs work against original communication. People value creative talent. They want to see
work that rises above the norm. When they see a work without clichs, they know the writer
has worked his or her tail off, doing whatever it takes to be original. When they see a work full
to the brim with clichs, they feel that the writer is not showing them anything above the
ordinary. (In case you hadnt noticed, this paragraph is chock full of clichs Ill bet you were
bored to tears.)
Clichs dull meaning. Because clichd writing sounds so familiar, people can complete finish
whole lines without even reading them. If they dont bother to read your poem, they certainly
wont stop to think about it. If they do not stop to think about your poem, they will never
encounter the deeper meanings that mark the work of an accomplished poet.
Examples of Clichs:

busy as a bee
tired as a dog
working my fingers to bone
beet red

How to Improve a Clich

I will take the clich as busy as a bee and show how you can express the same idea without
clich.
1. Determine what the clichd phrase is trying to say.
In this case, I can see that busy as a bee is a way to describe the state of being busy.
2. Think of an original way to describe what the clich is trying to describe.
For this clich, I started by thinking about busyness. I asked myself the question, What
things are associated with being busy? I came up with: college, my friend Jessica,
corporation bosses, old ladies making quilts and canning goods, and a computer,
fiddlers fiddling. From this list, I selected a thing that is not as often used in association
with busyness: violins.
3. Create a phrase using the non-clichd way of description.
I took my object associated with busyness and turned it into a phrase: I feel like a bow
fiddling an Irish reel. This phrase communicates the idea of busyness much better
than the worn-out, familiar clich. The readers mind can picture the insane fury of the
bow on the violin, and know that the poet is talking about a very frenzied sort of
busyness. In fact, those readers who know what an Irish reel sounds like may even get a
laugh out of this fresh way to describe busyness.
Try it! Take a clich and use these steps to improve it. You may even end up with a line you feel
is good enough to put in a poem!
Tip #3 Avoid Sentimentality.
Sentimentality is dominated by a blunt appeal to the emotions of pity and love . Popular
subjects are puppies, grandparents, and young lovers (Minot 416). When readers have the
feeling that emotions like rage or indignation have been pushed artificially for their own sake,
they will not take the poem seriously (132).
Minot says that the problem with sentimentality is that it detracts from the literary quality of
your work (416). If your poetry is mushy or teary-eyed, your readers may openly rebel against
your effort to invoke emotional response in them. If that happens, they will stop thinking about
the issues you want to raise, and will instead spend their energy trying to control their own gag
reflex.
Tip #4 Use Images.
BE A PAINTER IN WORDS, says UWEC English professor emerita, poet, and songwriter Peg
Lauber. She says poetry should stimulate six senses:

sight
hearing
smell
touch

taste
kinesiology (motion)
Examples.

Sunlight varnishes magnolia branches crimson (sight)

Vacuum cleaners whir and hum startles my ferret (hearing)
Penguins lumber to their nests (kinesiology)
Lauber advises her students to produce fresh, striking images (imaginative). Be a
camera. Make the reader be there with the poet/speaker/narrator. (See also: Show, Dont
(Just) Tell)

Tip #5 Use Metaphor and Simile.

Use metaphor and simile to bring imagery and concrete words into your writing.
Metaphor
A metaphor is a statement that pretends one thing is really something else:
Example: The lead singer is an elusive salamander.
This phrase does not mean that the lead singer is literally a salamander. Rather, it takes an
abstract characteristic of a salamander (elusiveness) and projects it onto the person. By using
metaphor to describe the lead singer, the poet creates a much more vivid picture of him/her
than if the poet had simply said The lead singers voice is hard to pick out.
Simile
A simile is a statement where you say one object is similar to another object. Similes use the
words like or as.
Example: He was curious as a caterpillar or He was curious, like a caterpillar
This phrase takes one quality of a caterpillar and projects it onto a person. It is an easy way to
attach concrete images to feelings and character traits that might usually be described with
abstract words.
Note: A simile is not automatically any more or less poetic than a metaphor. You dont
suddenly produce better poems if you replace all your similes with metaphors, or vice versa.
The point to remember is that comparison, inference, and suggestion are all important tools of
poetry; similes and metaphors are tools that will help in those areas.

Tip #6 Use Concrete Words Instead of Abstract Words.

Concrete words describe things that people experience with their senses.
orange

warm
cat
A person can see orange, feel warm, or hear a cat.

Poets use concrete words help the reader get a picture of what the poem is talking about.
When the reader has a picture of what the poem is talking about, he/she can better
understand what the poet is talking about.
Abstract words refer to concepts or feelings.
liberty
happy
love
Liberty is a concept, happy is a feeling, and no one can agree on whether love is a feeling,
a concept or an action.
A person cant see, touch, or taste any of these things. As a result, when used in poetry, these
words might simply fly over the readers head, without triggering any sensory response.
Further, liberty, happy, and love can mean different things to different people. Therefore,
if the poet uses such a word, the reader may take a different meaning from it than the poet
intended.
Change Abstract Words Into Concrete Words
To avoid problems caused by using abstract words, use concrete words.
Example: She felt happy.
This line uses the abstract word happy. To improve this line, change the abstract word to a
concrete image. One way to achieve this is to think of an object or a scene that evokes feelings
of happiness to represent the happy feeling.
Improvement: Her smile spread like red tint on ripening tomatoes.
This line uses two concrete images: a smile and a ripening tomato. Describing the smile shows
the reader something about happiness, rather than simply coming right out and naming the
emotion. Also, the symbolism of the tomato further reinforces the happy feelings. Red is
frequently associated with love; ripening is a positive natrual process; food is further associated
with being satisfied.
Prof. Jerz belabors Karas point:Extension: Now, lets do something with this image.
She sulked in the garden, reticent...hard;
Unwilling to face his kisses -- or unable.
One autumn morn she felt her sour face

Ripen to a helpless smile, tomato-red.

Her parted lips whispered, "Hello, sunshine!"
OK, the image has gotten embarrassingly obvious now, but you can see how the
introduction of the tomato permits us to make many additional connections. While
Karas original example simply reported a static emotional state She felt happy,
the image of the ripening tomato, which Kara introduced as a simple simile to
describe a smile, has grown into something much more complex. Regardless of what
the word tomato invoked in your mind, an abstraction like happy can never
stretch itself out to become a whole poem, without relying on concrete images. DGJ

Tip #7 Communicate Theme.

Poetry always has a theme. Theme is not just a topic, but an idea with an opinion.
Theme = Idea + Opinion
Topic: The Vietnam War
This is not a theme. It is only a subject. It is just an event. There are no ideas, opinions, or
statements about life or of wisdom contained in this sentence
Theme: History shows that despite our claims to be peace-loving, unfortunately each person
secretly dreams of gaining glory through conflict.
This is a theme. It is not just an event, but a statement about an event. It shows what the
poet thinks about the event. The poet strives to show the reader his/her theme during the
entire poem, making use of literary techniques.

Tip #8 Subvert the Ordinary.

Poets strength is the ability to see what other people see everyday in a new way. You dont
have to be special or a literary genius to write good poemsall you have to do is take an
ordinary object, place, person, or idea, and come up with a new perception of it.
Example: People ride the bus everyday.
Poets Interpretation: A poet looks at the people on the bus and imagines scenes from their
lives. A poet sees a sixty-year old woman and imagines a grandmother who runs marathons. A
poet sees a two-year old boy and imagines him painting with ruby nail polish on the toilet seat,
and his mother struggling to not respond in anger.
Take the ordinary and turn it on its head. (The word subvert literally means turn upside
down.)

Tip #9 Rhyme with Extreme Caution.

Rhyme and meter (the pattern of stressed and unstressed words) can be dangerous if used the
wrong way. Remember sing-song nursery rhymes? If you choose a rhyme scheme that makes
your poem sound sing-song, it will detract from the quality of your poem.
I recommend that beginning poets stick to free verse. It is hard enough to compose a poem
without dealing with the intricacies of rhyme and meter. (Note: see Jerzs response to this
point, in Poetry Is For the Ear.)
If you feel ready to create a rhymed poem, refer to chapters 6-10 of Stephen Minots
bookThree Genres: The Writing of Poetry, Fiction, and Drama. 6th ed., for more help.

Tip #10 Revise, Revise, Revise.

The first completed draft of your poem is only the beginning. Poets often go through several
drafts of a poem before considering the work done.
To revise:

Put your poem away for a few days, and then come back to it. When you re-read it, does
anything seem confusing? Hard to follow? Do you see anything that needs improvement
that you overlooked the first time? Often, when you are in the act of writing, you may
leave out important details because you are so familiar with the topic. Re-reading a
poem helps you to see it from the outsiders perspective of a reader.
Show your poem to others and ask for criticism. Dont be content with a response like,
Thats a nice poem. You wont learn anything from that kind of response. Instead, find
people who will tell you specific things you need to improve in your poem.

Tips on Writing Poems

Whether you are an advanced, intermediate, or beginner writer, learning some tips on
writing poems can certainly be useful. For some, poetry comes very easily. However, a lot of
people do find it more difficult to write poetry than to write in prose. They may feel that poetry
requires the writer to get so caught up in style, yet that only really applies if the writer resigns
him or herself to one particular style and forces it on the writing.
Poem Writing Tips
There are a few things to think about before you start writing your poem. The following tips on
writing poems will help you get started.

Know your purpose. Why are you writing a poem and what do you want it to do?

Pick a subject. You do not have to pick a stereotypical poetry topic such as nature, animals,
love, or some sort of darker topic. Poems can be written about any topic under the sun.
Choose a pattern. You might choose to use free verse, rhyming couplets, or an epic poetry
style. It's better to let the words flow with the style, than to return later and try to fit your
already-written ideas into a totally new scheme.
Avoid clichs. These are sayings that have been overused, like busy as a bee, or blind as a
bat.
Use imagery. Paint with your words and use concrete words that appeal to the senses.
Abstract words can not give the reader a good picture of what you are trying to say.
Use similes and metaphors. Similes compare two things, like you are sweet as honey and
usually use the word like or as. Metaphors state that one thing is another thing, like
you are a pig. Things being compared in a metaphor have at least one thing in common
but are very different in other ways.
Remember that poems do not have to have rhymes or meter. If a poem is too much like a
nursery rhyme, it can distract from the poems purpose.
Revise your poem. You should put it away for a day or two, then read it again and try to make it
better. You may want to have a friend read it and get his opinion.
Get Creative
Now that you have some tips on writing poems, you need to get those creative juices flowing.
Poets see the world in a different way. Look around and try to get a different perspective.
If you stand on your head, you will see things differently in a physical way. A poet does this
figuratively by imagining what people are thinking about or why they are doing something. If a
poet saw an apple, he may wonder why it is there, who put it there, what the apple is thinking,
or what it will become, like applesauce or pie.
Take a walk and try to experience every physical sense: touch, smell, hearing, taste, and vision.
Watch people and animals and imagine their feelings and perspectives. Get silly and make up
crazy stuff. Loosen up, have fun, and start writing.
Types of Poems
A poem is a composition that expresses emotions or shows something in an imaginative way.
Poems can be categorizedmany different ways. The three main types of poems are narrative,
dramatic, or lyric.

NARRATIVE: A narrative poem tells a story and includes ballads and epics. A great example
of a narrative poem is Edgar Allan Poes poem, The Raven. Here is an excerpt:
And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas just above
my chamber door; And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming, And the
lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; And my soul from out that
shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted - nevermore.

DRAMATIC: Dramatic poetry is written in verse and is supposed to be recited. The opening
of Christopher Marlowes Tamburlaine the Great is a great example of dramatic poetry:
From jigging veins of riming mother witsAnd such conceits as clownage keeps in payWe'll lead
you to the stately tent of war,Where you shall hear the Scythian TamburlaineThreatening the
world with high astounding termsAnd scourging kingdoms with his conquering sword.

LYRIC: This poetry is very emotional, musical, and focuses on attitudes, feelings, and the
poets state of mind. Examples include odes and sonnets, like the famous Sonnet 18 by
William Shakespeare. Here is an excerpt:
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough
winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer's lease hath all too short a date:Sometime
too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimmed,And every fair from
fair sometime declines,By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed: