For those of you who think you can yield a first and only draft, come down from the clouds that you’re nested in, and get with the rest of the sane world.  Even geniuses revise.  You’re not going to get it perfect the first time (except Arthur Miller, bah—he’s an exception).

Anyway (ANWAYS IS NOT A WORD), constantly revise and edit and revise and edit.  And then have others revise and edit.  And then do it yourself again.

*Stretches*

(Edited by anonymousss at 8:08 am on Oct. 21, 2005)

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Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm a schizophrenic...
...And so am I

This is a poem typically written in fourteen lines of iambic pentameter.  Iambic pentameter?  Well, first, an iamb is the most common foot (unstressed, followed by stressed), and pentameter is basically five feet.  So iambic pentameter would be:

U /  U/  U/  U/  U/

U = unstressed
/ = stressed

There are three common types.

The Shakespearean or English sonnet is commonly rhymed in three quatrains (see definitions) and a couplet (also see definitions).  This leaves us with:

a b a b, c d c d, e f e f, g g

Example:

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see’st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by-and-by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the deathbed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
--William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73

The Italian or Petrarchan sonnet is typically rhymed in units of eight (octave) and six lines (sestet):  a b b a a b b a, c d e c d e (or c d c d c d)

The Spenserian sonnet is interlocking:  a b a b, b c b c, c d c d, e e.

There are all sorts of variations for sonnets—even Frost wrote quite a few sonnets himself, trying the variation:  a a a b b b c c c d d d e e

(Edited by anonymousss at 8:31 am on Oct. 21, 2005)

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Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm a schizophrenic...
...And so am I

Thank the French for this one.  A villanelle is a poem of six stanzas—five triplets (tercets) and a quatrain.  It employs only two rhymes throughout:  a b a, a b a, a b a, a b a, a b a, a b a a

The first and third lines are repeated entirely, three times, as a refrain.  Line 1 appears again as lines 6, 12, and 18.  Line 3 appears as lines 9, 15, and 19.

Example:

Do not go gentle into that good night,  
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;  
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.  

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,  
Because their words had forked no lightning they  
Do not go gentle into that good night.  

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright  
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,  
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.  

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,  
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,  
Do not go gentle into that good night.  

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight  
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,  
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.  

And you, my father, there on the sad height,  
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.  
Do not go gentle into that good night.  
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

--Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle.”

(Edited by anonymousss at 7:33 pm on Oct. 24, 2005)

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Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm a schizophrenic...
...And so am I

This Malayan form is an indefinite number of a b a b quatrain stanzas, with this restriction:  lines 2 and 4 of each stanza, in their entirety, become lines 1 and 3 of the following stanza, and so on.  The carry-over lines are called repetons.  The sequence is ended in a quatrain whose repetons are lines 1 and 3 of the first stanza in reversed order.

Example:

I walked under a fire escape splashed with gasoline.
    I walked past a sweatshop buried in a warehouse
where dozens of women were sewing garments.
    I got a job as a waiter in a downtown restaurant.

I walked past a sweatshop buried in a warehouse.
    My father lent me the car on Saturday nights.
I waited on tables in a downtown restaurant
    And ate in the kitchen with the other waiters.

My father lent me the car on Saturday nights.
    I took my girlfriend to the beach for parties.
I ate in the kitchen with the other waiters.
    Everyone laughed at my enormous appetite.

I took my girlfriend to the beach for parties.
    She wanted to get married, get pregnant.
Everyone laughed at my enormous appetite.
I wanted her so much I thought I’d die of it.

She wanted to get pregnant, get married.
    I wrote a poem about a closing steel door.
I wanted her so much I thought I’d die of it.
    I got a job in a warehouse next to a factory.

--Edward Hirsch’s “At Sixteen”

(Edited by anonymousss at 7:27 am on Oct. 21, 2005)

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Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm a schizophrenic...
...And so am I

This a Japanese form composed of three lines, of five, seven, and five syllables.  The essence of the haiku (or hokku), however, is not its syllabic form (which is pretty meaningless in English), but its tone or touch, influenced by Zen Buddhism.  Haiku are, in general, very brief natural descriptions or observations that carry some implicit spiritual insight.

Examples:

The old dog bends his head listening…
I guess the singing
of the earthworms gets to him.
--Kobayashi Issa

An old pond;
A frog jumps in—
The sound of water
--Bash

Note:  These have been (obviously) translated into English, so the syllabes, which originally were five, seven, and five (being in Japanese), have changed.

Basically, in English, it would appear:

Blah blah blah blah blah
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
Blah blah blah blah blah

(I'll come up with a better example.)

(Edited by anonymousss at 4:23 pm on Oct. 24, 2005)

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Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm a schizophrenic...
...And so am I

Angst can hold a poem back.  For example, not taken from this site,

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Why don't you like me
can you tell me that?
I just want to know
what are you at!?!

---

This is simple, straight forward angst.  Mundane, ambiguous words are used in place of what could be solid metaphor and feeling.  In comparison, I have seen better in a Dr. Seuss book, which is what it's almost equivalent with.  For teen and adult poetry, angst has to be worked in with literary devices, something like this,

---

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
         Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
   And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
         Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
   And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
   Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
         In the sepulchre there by the sea,
         In her tomb by the sounding sea.

---

Obviously, this is taken from Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee."  The obvious meaning lay obvious, of his greiving for his Annabel Lee, but also the deeper meaning, what he felt all his life, and what his purpose was as a human being.  He did not refrain from stating something obvious, but he did not state the obvious.  This is what makes angsty poetry work.  Find your niche regarding metaphors and figurative language, and you should be able to succeed in what you're writing (especially if all you're used to doing is angst).  


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Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm a schizophrenic...
...And so am I

This requires no example.  

While writing, it is to your benefit to pay attention, to some extent, how many times you're using what you may consider your "favorite word."  It is true, that you do need to allow yourself to write down whatever first enters your mind, but once you begin using the same word two or three times in one stanza (or even short poem), it become repetitive, and unpleasant to read.  To ail this, try coming up with synonyms for the word you're over using.  If you're rhyming, it's generally safe to say (for a novice writer) that you need to stay away from thesauruses.  They create options that may seem appealing, but end up in turn, introducing the other, rather boastfully ugly idea of forced rhyme, which you don't want either.  Don't use words if you don't know what they mean.  For all of you more experienced poets- you know what I'm talking about, and it turns off the interest button only a few words in.  


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Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm a schizophrenic...
...And so am I

Be sure to title your poem effectively.  First of all, as a beginning side note, poems go in quotation marks ("__"), as opposed to being underlined or bolded.  Just to clarify.  

As for the actual title- as a rule of thumb, do not use a word in the title that you have used nearly excessively in the body of your poem, unless you are trying to create a motif.  It usually doesn't work.  Also, again, don't use a thesaurus to find words that look good to use in your title, if you don't know what it means.  When in doubt, keep it suitably simple- alliteration also works well in many situations.


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Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm a schizophrenic...
...And so am I