10 Tips for Writing Poetry to Improve Your Skills

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Did you know that it’s now easier than ever for poets to print, publish, distribute, and sell their poems in bookstores around the world? That is, if you have poems to publish. If you’re struggling with crafting the very best poems you know you’re capable of and looking for effective tips for writing poetry, this article is for you. We’ll offer tips and tricks on how to improve your poetic skill set, and how to bring those incredible creations to the world.

Let’s dive in.

What is a poem?

OK, so you probably already think you know what a poem is, but if you want to improve your skills, it’s worth going back to the basics.

Poetry is like art or music: You know a poem when you see one, but what exactly makes a poem a poem is a bit hard to define. For example, how can the following two works both be considered examples of the same type of literature?

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore —
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“‘Tis some visiter,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door —
Only this and nothing more.”

Excerpt from “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe

Untitled [“silencio”] by Eugen Gomringer

Here are some key elements to poetry:

• Poems emphasize the musical quality of language.
• Poems use condensed language. Every word counts.
• Poems often feature — and are often meant to invoke — intense feelings.

Beyond that, poems can come in all shapes and sizes; they can incorporate any number of literary techniques; and they can be as serious or silly as the poet wants.

I like Emily Dickinson’s definition: “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?”

How do you start writing a poem?

Now that we have a vague-but-poetic working definition of poetry, let’s start writing.

Step 1: Read

OK, scratch that. Before you can start writing poetry, you need to read poetry, and read lots of it. Really try to broaden your horizons so you can experience all the different kinds of poetry that exist in the world. Read classical as well as modern. Read sonnets as well as concrete poems. Read English and American poems as well as poems from other languages and cultures. Figure out what appeals to you and why. See if you can mix and match the bits you like in your own poems.

Step 2: Know Your Purpose

Every poem should be about something and/or should do something. Poems can be funny, they can express ideas and emotions, they can tell stories and teach lessons, they can be forms of protest, or they can be manifestations of love. You need to decide what you want your poem to do and/or be about.

A few key points:

• Less is usually more
• Expression is more important than grammar or spelling
• Show, don’t tell

Step 3: Embrace Imagery, Metaphor, and Other Literary Devices

Literary devices are techniques that writers employ to lift language to new heights. And although prose writing certainly employs them, literary devices are what make poetry sing. Here are some of the popular literary devices in poetry writing. Try to incorporate them into your writing to see how they can make your poems soar.

Metaphor and Simile

These poetic devices compare one object to another to draw similarities (simile is a form of metaphor that uses “like” or “as” to convey the comparison). Metaphor allows the author to express thoughts and emotions that cannot be described through normal language.

My family is the ocean around us.
My father is the hurricane,
knocking anything and everybody out of his path.

Excerpt from “An Ocean Of Memories” by Kimberly L. Briones

Analogy

This is another comparative device, similar to metaphor, but where the author takes the time to explain why the comparison is interesting.

The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight.

Excerpt from “The Day is Done” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Imagery

Perhaps the most iconic device in poetry writing, imagery is the use of figurative language to evoke a sensory experience in the reader. Try to evoke all five senses in your writing.

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Excerpt from “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth

This poem also includes a nice example of personification, which is the attribution of qualities of one thing to another object. In William Wordsworth’s poem, the daffodils are described as fluttering and dancing.

Symbolism

This next poetry tip is a technique in which one object represents another. In the following poem, Dickinson uses light to represent hope.

A light exists in spring
Not present on the year
At any other period
When March is scarcely here

Excerpt from “A Light Exists in Spring” by Emily Dickinson

Juxtaposition

Placing two ideas next to each other to produce a thought-provoking or ironic effect.

Used to plot on the come up, plot on my brothers,
Now I get the tomatoes cropping sideways.
Stooped in the coop, gathering eggs.
Traded some to the neighbor for fresh bread.
I say I’m at peace but it’s still that same dread.

Excerpt from Billy Woods’ “Agriculture”

Sound devices

Techniques like alliteration, assonance, and rhyme and make your poems musical. Let’s check out two examples from E. E. Cummings.

Assonance:

…on a proud round cloud in a white high night

Excerpt from “if a cheerfulest Elephantangelchild should sit”

Alliteration and rhyme:

maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)

Excerpt from “maggie and milly and molly and may”

Step 4: Try combining devices

Of course, the best writing incorporates several literary devices at once. Consider this poem, which uses metaphor, imagery, and juxtaposition in just two lines of text:

The apparition of these faces in the crowd:
Petals on a wet, black bough.

“In a Station of the Metro” by Ezra Pound

Using literary or rhetorical devices in your poetry can transform even the most mundane experiences into something more.

Step 5: Experiment with different forms

Remember, poems come in all different shapes and sizes, and a good way to improve your poetic skills is to experiment with different poetic forms. Try working with strict forms like haiku, sonnet, or acrostic poem, as well as more open forms like blank verse, free verse, or even concrete poetry.

As liberating as it might seem to write free verse, (“Wow! Anything goes!”) some may find it a bit overwhelming (“Good lord, where do I even start?”). There can be something comforting in having to conform to the structures of a strict form like a sonnet.

Step 6: Work on your voice and style

At the end of the day, each poetry tip listed is meant to help you find your voice and your own creative writing style. After all, you may love the poems of William Carlos Williams, but simply copying his writing style isn’t going to help you make a name for yourself. You need to write poems that only you can write.

Finding your voice may not come straight away. It may take weeks, months, maybe even years to find it. And once you do, you may find your voice as a writer evolving over time. It’s all part of the process.

Step 7: Drafting and revising

You know the old saying: writing is rewriting, and that’s just as true with poetry as it is with prose. Our advice is to write your first draft and set it aside for a month. In the meantime, start writing your next poem. After a month, you’ll have enough distance from the poem to be able to see it with fresh eyes so you can revise as need be.

Step 8: Feedback and critique

Getting unbiased feedback is essential. If you have friends or family members who you can trust to give you an honest critique, then ask them to read your poems. Otherwise, your best bet is to join a writer’s group or hire beta readers online.

Step 9: Editing and proofreading

Once you’ve finally gotten your poems to their final form, it’s important to hire an editor — and one whose specialty is poetry. This isn’t something you should skimp on. Going to Fiverr for a beta reader might be fine, but that’s not the place to find a qualified, professional editor for your poetry. BookBaby offers high-quality professional book editing services — and we employ editors who specialize in poetry.
https://www.bookbaby.com/book-editing-services

Step 10: Publishing your poems

Once you’ve collected enough poems, your next step is to publish them and send them out into the world. We’ve got a bunch of tips to help you cross the finish line:

• How to Publish a Poetry Book
• How To Promote Poetry on Social Media
• Can You Really Make Money Selling Poetry?

And finally, if you are looking for a publishing partner that will help you with every step of the process, from book cover design and editing all the way through distribution, sales, and marketing, you can find everything you need with BookBaby’s self-publishing packages.

Your poetic journey awaits

We hope these tips have helped you improve your poetic skills. And remember, if you have any questions about publishing your poetry book, feel free to call BookBaby at 1-877-961-6878.

Happy writing!