“Poetry is the consistent
seeking of humanity
and our souls can find
the answers they seek
in poems.”
- dimitrireyespoet.com
Craft is…
an arsenal of different tools and techniques at the poet’s disposal to create a great poem. This can involve different ways one knows how to structure the aesthetics and narrative of a poem by using different poetic techniques and devices.
The Beginning
Tools in our craft toolbox should include all of those things we need to structure a good beginning. When you’re in high school and essays are being discussed, a good topic sentence or hook is essential. The same goes for poetry. If you hook the audience early, the reader will be so invested into your work that they will simply trust you throughout the rest of the piece.
When writing, you should be doing it for yourself, but when we start taking the audience into consideration, we have to turn to our craft toolbox in order to bridge the gap of understanding.
1. Alliteration
You can “hook” the reader in with some solid alliteration. Alliteration is a term where there is a common sound in multiple words that are being strung together. I favor the sonic repetitions from alliteration because it carries this musical tonality that is pleasing to the ear and reminds us of nursery rhymes, hip hop, and jingles.
Have you ever read a poem that was hard to pick up the beat or you didn’t know how to read it so you deemed it as a poem you didn’t like or couldn’t understand? This can usually come from our social capital; what we have access to and what we deem as “acceptable” and “cool” in our social circles. We are also subconsciously attracted to certain kinds of notes and rhythms. There is a whole school of thought like this where particular notes that resonate with particular people are called cymatic resonances.
While we are experiencing the content of the poem (words and the way it rests on the page) our minds are also ingesting the “background” of the poem which deals with the sonic resonances.
Plainly, we all have a sensory subconscious and are wired to appreciate certain kinds of sounds and rhythms biologically as well as the rhythms we have been exposed to socially.
Being able to attract readers to the way words flow allows the mind to actively engage with the poem in a similar way we would view a painting’s foreground and background.
Let me offer you the example which uses alliteration and allows our mind to work in the “foreground” and “background” of the poem. This particular line is from Edgar Allan Poe’s, The Raven
“And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain”
Notice all the harsh “s” sounds in silken, sad, uncertain, and rustling as well as the soft “u” sounds in uncertain, rustling, purple, and curtain
“And the silken sad (uncertain) rustling of each purple (curtain)”
Also, notice the embellishment of this line, with the rhyme of “uncertain” and “curtain.”
When done right, the stringing together of rhymes and alliteration in a line can be quite beautiful and easy to understand. That’s why nursery rhymes are so effective when teaching words and stories to early learners.
2. Epigraph
Using an epigraph in a poem is great because it doesn’t only make the poem look more thought out, but it can also offer supplemental information or a deeper layer into what the poem is discussing. And while the title is supposed to help point the reader in the right direction, the epigraph can act as the connecting sinew between the title and the poem.
The epigraph is often used in ekphrastic pieces to also signal that the poem was inspired by an art form of a different medium.
Ricky Laurentiis has an example of the epigraph/ ekphrasis in his 2016 book Boy with Thorn, which can be purchased on my Amazon booklist.
This particular poem, is after a Georgia O’ Keeffe oil painting on canvas. I encourage you to first read the poem without considering the epigraph. You will most likely still feel it’s a strong poem. If you read it a second time with the epigraph, you’ll realize that there is an engagement between the painter and the poet.
"Being able to attract readers to the way words flow allows the mind to actively participate in a poem the way it would view a painting’s foreground and background."
3. Originality
Poetry is being mass produced every day on social media, in presses both in print and online, and it has even been peppered in cinema. With this being said, the more poetry that is being created the more the general public will continue looking for the next best thing.
How many ways can one talk about loving someone? In how many situations can one love another? In what ways does their love compare? Poetry is the consistent seeking of humanity and our souls can find the answers they seek in poems.
So although Shakespeare was one of the original MVP’s when he busted out, “Shall I compare thee to a Midsummer’s Day?” it’s been overplayed for centuries, and we have to be careful when we try to “revitalize” these older, rockstar-famous lines because if we are reading these works in school, they haven’t died yet. Therefore, this is just material that you’d be recycling over again.
Teespring
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Today, I offer you three instruments for your toolbox in the form of alliteration, the epigraph, and individuality. Think about using those to energize your beginnings, hook your audience, and have them invest into the work you care about so much.