Entry #535307, added on 09-15-07 @ 11:33 am EDT
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| Choosing the Right Words for a Poem | Entry #535307 |
In The Discovery of Poetry, A Field Guide to Reading and Writing Poems, author and poet Frances Mayes states:
Words are the basic building blocks of poetry. The poem is made word by word. No other choices the poet make – subject, structure, speaker – are more important than the quality of individual words.
Sometimes a poem can mean little or nothing, yet the stimulus of the words alone wins our attention. We begin to invent for ourselves. Our ears pick prick up for the pleasure of listening to interesting sounds….
Good poems use language with freshness.
Frances Mayes, bestselling author and poet.
If one has a large vocabulary, one can pick and choose to find just the right word. And choosing the right word can make a difference in several ways. For example, which word would you choose if you were creating a poem using one of the following lines?
“Cry when I’m gone.” “Weep when I’m gone.”
Perhaps you would say that the word "weep" has a softer, more sympathetic sound. You might also realize that the alliteration between "weep" and "when" is pleasing to the ear and heart. Now, listen to the remainder of the poem and think how different it would have sounded if the word "cry" had been used. Note, also, other uses of alliteration that help to emphasize the ideas and lead one to the conclusion and climax at the end of the verse.
Weep, when I’m gone, if you must,
But know it is true, if you trust,
I’ll only be gone for a day,
And soon you’ll be going that way.
http://www.artsreformation.com/a001/dr-rightwords.html
Dorothy E. Robbins
Part of the enjoyment we get from reading poetry comes from the texture of the language. We can build up that texture by choosing original and interesting words.
http://web.mala.bc.ca/guppy/crew410/editing_poetry.htm
Onomatopoeia and alliteration are two poetry devices that can aid the sound of a poem.
Onomatopoeia is using a word that imitates the sound it is describing.
I found a very good example of onomatopoeia in the following poem (using the word ‘plink’):
Alliteration is the repetition of the same sound at the beginning of words.
http://www.stedwards.edu/hum/klawitter/poetics/devices.html
Words are the tools of poetry. Choosing the right word is a challenge that makes poetry an exciting and creative art. Word choices are very important. In the business world, it is said that the most important concern for the success of a business is ‘location, location, location.” For the poet, as William Shakespeare so aptly stated, success is about “words, words, words.”
In the following poem, I tried to use the sounds of the names of plants and animals, along with alliteration, to create a ‘sound’ for this poem. The names of certain animals and plants would not have worked to create a cohesive sound for this poem.
An Evening in the Garden
Purple-top turnips and orange tulips
grow side-by-side
behind thorny tangles of
barbed-wire barricades.
Rust-bottomed water buckets
dangle haphazardly
from pin-oak posts.
Parsnips and snap peas,
in parallel rows,
stand alongside Brussels sprouts,
broccoli, and red beets.
Tracks of opossum and polecat,
pilferers and pests,
midnight prowlers,
line the unplowed soil
of the perimeters.
Hand-carved cane,
crooked back, honeycombed hands -
a sweat-stained straw hat
covering his balding head -
a man, advanced in years,
gingerly sifts soft dirt,
wipes his brow with
a sun-bleached bandana,
and talks to the tulips.
larryp
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Try writing a poem where you play with the sound of words to create a sound for the poem. This will help you to tune your ear to the sounds of words used together, much the way a piano tuner listens to the individual keys to tune the sound of a piano.
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