Kings, rulers, statesmen, generals, philosophers, scientists were once of necessity poets. The early man used poetry which preceded prose, as a persisting form of literary expression; for poetry was far better adapted to be retained in the mind than its more plodding relative, prose.
Imagination is perhaps the most useful piece of equipment for a poet, using an accurate usage defined as follows:
Poetry is the expression of thoughts which awake the higher and nobler emotions or their opposites, in words arranged according to some accepted convention.
But poets must not be bound by fossilized conventions and become a tepid social group, whose words are largely unimportant. Today as an aspiring poet you may help restore poetry to something of its original wide popularity, as a natural and inartificial expression of concentrated emotional speech.
Another essential is technical mastery; adeptness in the craft of poetry, skill in handling all the tools of the trade. Familiarity with all the conventions will enable you to break them and make new ones when your fresh subject matter demands it. Technical mastery is as easy, and no easier, than learning how to raise better dogs than your neighbor.
Its devices, meter, rhyme, alliteration, assonance, consonance, stanza arrangement may be mastered as easily as multiplication tables.
When you have a thought, immediately write it down or record it. Then, the critical intellect comes into play. If technical mastery has become habitual, the intellect may have no changes to suggest. In all cases the danger is more in the overuse of the intellect than in the use of inspiration.
The easiest way, in poetry is to rephrase your own emotional reactions in the words and phrases created by your favorite poets of the past, but be wise enough and true to your own differing vision and seek to expand the boundaries of poetry by stating your own desires in your own terms.
Summation
We wrote a few lines of verse
and its lines you did not rehearse;
Are we to suppose the verse to burn
or did you in your own words yearn?
You took the first line of thought,
personal emotions you then fought,
found what you thought inside,
now a poem in which we will abide.
These are the humble beginnings
of a verse which we all try to write
eventually opening our eyes mind;
Now four score and many more,
the verse, a verse, poetry will soar.
Copyright: 1986-2010