John Hewitt's Blog

  • Home
  • Archives
  • Subscribe to John Hewitt’s Blog by Email

Write a poem that includes one or more descriptions of sounds – 31p31d

Posted on October 28, 2014 by John Hewitt

Day 28 of 31 Poems in 31 Days

Choose Your Words

Some poets write what they feel and spend very little time thinking about which word to use. They rely on instinct. Other poets spend a considerable amount of time trying to choose exactly the right words. They analyze and consider every word. I’m not going to advocate one method over the other. In my opinion, it is up to the poet to determine their approach to word choice. I am certainly in the middle of the road with my approach. I care about word choice, and I will often consider the benefits of one word over another, but I would consider myself completely sidetracked if I spent more than a few minutes deciding on whether or not one word is more perfect over another.

There are six general ways to influence and analyze your choice of words. The type of poem you write can make a difference in your choices. A poem with a metered form is going to involve choices about rhythm. A visually structured poem will entail a greater emphasis on appearance. A persona poem will require an increased focus on style. Beyond form, there is the individual style of the poet, which leads to subconscious word choices. Below are the six methods that you can use to determine word choice.

Meaning: The meaning of a word can be important in several ways. Obviously you want a word with the correct definition, but there are other considerations. Sometimes you want to reflect on the alternate meanings of a word in addition to the contextual meaning of a word. For example, you can say “we were filming the movie” or “we were shooting the movie”. Both phrases are correct in context, but the word shooting brings in other images because it has alternate meanings. Filming is the more precise word, which may be what the poet wants, but shooting has connotations of both violence and achievement (shooting a gun, shooting for the stars) that filming does not. These differences can have an overall effect on the poem, especially if reinforced with other word choices elsewhere in the poem.

Style: Another consideration is style and usage. Some words are more formal than others. For example, “cannot” and “can’t” are essentially the same word, but cannot is the accepted formal usage and can’t, like all contractions, is considered informal. Even more informal usages, such as slang or colloquialisms like cain’t, create a much different effect.

Rhythm: The rhythm of a word is essentially its meter, which I have discussed in earlier posts. It is the general pattern of the word, stressed syllables versus unstressed syllables. Even if you aren’t attempting to write a poem with a formal meter, you may find that you want a particular rhythm, especially for words on the same line.

Sound: The way a word sounds is always a consideration in poetry. The following words all mean essentially (though not exactly) the same thing: apron, bib, smock, pinafore. Each of these words has a different sound. Apron and pinafore have softer and longer sounds compared with bib and smock. If the exact meaning of the word isn’t your primary concern, then you might choose one of the four because it fits your sound requirements. It may rhyme, be alliterative, be assonant or add any of a number of other qualities to your poem.

Length: The length of a word can have very definite effects on a poem. The eye and even the voice tend to move more quickly over short words than long, even if the total number of syllables per line is the same. Short words tend to present as more active than long words. Long words tend to present as more formal and intellectual than short words.

Appearance: The final consideration in word choice is how the word looks on the page. For some poets, especially those who work with visual structures, this can be important. The words “little” and “modest” have similar meanings, the same number of letters and the same stresses, but the letters of the word little are (overall) taller and narrower than the letters in modest. For a visually-oriented poet, this can determine which word gets used.

Today’s Poetry Assignment

Write a poem that includes one or more descriptions of sounds.

Posted in Poetry | 1 Comment
« Use an inspiration tool
Write the final line of your poem first, then figure out a way to get there »

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Welcome!

I am John Hewitt and this is my blog. I am a Content Strategist for a personal finance company. I also write fiction and poetry, which I publish here. I enjoy a lot of television shows, movies, and books which I also post about from time to time. I have a life and sometimes write about it.

This is my spot to talk about whatever I want, no matter how controversial or mundane.

About this blog

This is my personal blog. It reflects my thoughts and opinions and not those of any employers (past or present) or other affiliated parties. Any endorsements I make are my own.

I don’t use an ad service, but I do have affiliate links to Amazon if I talk about a book, show, or other item.

Also, I have no editor, and I sometimes make typos or otherwise write badly. Yes, I am a professional writer. Yes, I also make mistakes.

Unfollow me!

If you don’t like my views on politics, writing, or anything else, please unfollow me. If you don’t like the way I write, please unfollow me.

There’s no need to let me know. It won’t change anything about me or you. I don’t care how much traffic I get, so you aren’t hurting the site if you leave. Everything is fine. Just go do something you enjoy more than reading my thoughts.

Copyright and reuse

Unless otherwise attributed, all work on this site is my own and comes under general copyright. Please use attribution when quoting from my site or republishing any images.

Privacy note

Other than what Google Analytics tells me about my traffic in general, I do not collect information on users and I would never resell people’s personal information. I also use Disqus for comments. You’ll have to register with them if you want to comment, but they get your information, not me.

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
© John Hewitt