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Young Writers Society


How do you incorporate poetic techniques into a poem?



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Sat Mar 22, 2014 1:26 pm
WritingWolf says...



I recently wrought this poem, and I love it. It said exactly what I wanted it to say in a way that meant something to me. But I want to make it so that others can enjoy it too. Automatically this makes me think of rhyming (which I'm terrible at). I attempted to put a rhyme to the poem, but everything I came up with would take away from what the poem was saying. So I decided that rhyming is a bad idea.
Then I did some looking around for other poetry techniques that might enhance this poem. I found @barefootrunner had this lovely topic Kiss My Assonance - 5 ways to improve your poetry which has a lot of wonderful techniques.

But now I can't figure out how to incorporate them into an existing poem. I think I could write a poem using alliteration and assonance quite easily. But putting them into a poem that was already written is a bit harder because I have to mess around with wording.

So I'm wondering if you have any tips on how to incorporate some of the things in her guide into an existing poem?

And possibly if you want to get more specific you could help me pick out which one to try to put into this poem and how to do so.
Here's the poem
Spoiler! :
Through Her Eyes


"I want to be like you"
A little girl once said
To her daddy who replied
"I hope that never happens"

The father who was
Absolutely terrified
That his baby girl
Would take on all
Of his terrible flaws.

The little girl who
Could only see
All the good things
In her dear daddy.

If he would merely
See himself
Through the eyes
Of his little girl.
He'd find a man
Worth being like.

If she could understand
What her father meant
When he disregarded
Her compliment.
Then she could help him see
The man that she sees.

Because through the eyes
Of a little girl
He was twice the man
He thought he ever could be.
~You can only grasp what you reach for~
  





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Sat Mar 22, 2014 3:07 pm
Rosendorn says...



Poems don't necessarily need fancy poetic techniques to be good; it depends on the person's style.

Poetry is, rather literally, "everything that is not prose". You're already using a poetic technique— line breaks in the middle of the sentence. I'd actually drop capitalizing every line, because it breaks up flow for me.

Personally, I'd keep that poem as is and completely rewrite it after learning more about poetic techniques. If you love that poem, keep it! We all need things we're proud of. It can actually be really fun to reread old poems and see how you've changed since.

Poetry is basically your heart on a page, and I can see from that poem it's probably really close to you. So keep it. Put it away some place safe. After you've done that.

Read more guides on poetic techniques. Read more poems from all types of poets (published or not) and see what you really like and don't like. Figure out what you want to absorb into your style and what you want to leave out. Think of what you want to say and completely reformat it to fit the poetic techniques.

Rewrite the poem and see what comes out. It might not be exactly what you want to say, but that's where editing comes in. When you're not happy with a poem is the time to edit. When you are happy with a poem is the time to leave it alone.

Hope this helps!
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

Ink is blood. Paper is bandages. The wounded press books to their heart to know they're not alone.
  








An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backwards. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties, it means that life's going to launch you into something great, so just focus and keep aiming.
— Unknown