How to Write a Love Poem
Love poems have tried to capture the essence of love since the dawn of poetry itself. Because love is a highly personal and variable experience, no two love poets will…
Read MoreWhat is Confessional Poetry?
When a poem explores the poet’s inner psyche, deeply personal experiences, their struggles, turmoils, and/or secrets, we might be inclined to call it confessional poetry. Like a penitent kneeling in…
Read MoreWhat is Poetry?: Helping You Define Poetry for Yourself
What is poetry? Well, it’s the oldest form of literature, a full-throated inquiry into the human experience, a means of compressing life into the fewest words, etc. All of these…
Read MoreGhazal Poetry: How to Write a Ghazal Poem
The ghazal poem is an intricate, richly symbolic poetry form that finds its origins in 7th century Arabia. Ghazal poetry typically ruminates on matters of love (both divine and earthly),…
Read MoreCinquain Poetry: How to Write a Cinquain Poem
A cinquain is a stanza composed of five lines, which makes a cinquain poem a poem composed of five-line stanzas. These short poems are the perfect length to find insight…
Read MoreExamples of Short Poems and How to Write Them
Great poetry can be any length: long poems can sprawl across pages like interstate highways, but short poems can be just as moving and powerful. Short form poetry, which includes…
Read MoreHow to Write an Acrostic Poem: Examples and Forms
If you’re a fan of steganography—the art of concealing messages in text—you might enjoy writing an acrostic poem. From the abecedarian to the golden shovel, acrostic poetry hijacks the poem’s…
Read MoreHow to Write a Free Verse Poem: Writing Poetry Without Fixed Form
A free verse poem is a poem that doesn’t rely on any particular form, meter, or rhyme scheme, yet still conveys powerful feelings and ideas. Rather than letting a certain…
Read MorePersona Poetry: How to Write a Persona Poem
Persona poems allow poets to inhabit the minds of other people and write from their perspectives. If you’ve ever wanted to get inside someone’s brain, crawl around in it for…
Read MoreWhat is Form in Poetry? 15 Poetic Forms to Try
The relationship between poetry forms and language cannot be overstated: with different forms of poetry, poets encounter new ways to grapple with complex poetic topics. Indeed, poets have played with…
Read MoreHow to Write a Pantoum Poem
The pantoum poem is a poem of any length, sectioned in quatrains, and it has experienced a recent surge in popularity from contemporary poets. Like other forms, such as the…
Read MoreSestina Poetry: How to Write a Sestina Poem
The sestina poem is a centuries old poetry form with a strict format that requires the precise repetition of end words. It is a challenging form to write, as the…
Read MoreVillanelle Definition: How to Write a Villanelle
A villanelle poem is a 19-lined formal poem that, although developed in the 17th century, was particularly prominent in the 20th. In fact, you have probably read or studied some…
Read MoreLyric Poetry Definition: How to Write a Lyric Poem
Lyric poetry has a rich, surprising history. As one of the oldest forms of literature, the lyric poem has moved and captivated audiences with its emphasis on language, sound, and…
Read MoreEkphrastic Poetry: How to Write an Ekphrastic Poem
Ekphrasis is a literary device in which a work of art, usually visual, inspires a piece of poetry or prose. Ekphrastic poetry, then, describes a poem that finds inspiration in…
Read MoreOde Poetry: How to Write an Ode Poem
The ode poem is an ages-old poetry form that praises and celebrates people, places, things, and ideas. Poets have written odes to Grecian urns, the west wind, the hymen, and…
Read MoreSonnet Poems: How to Write a Sonnet
The sonnet is a poetry form that poets have wielded for centuries—from Petrarch and Shakespeare to Marilyn Nelson and Terrance Hayes. These 14-line poems use restrictions of length and rhythm…
Read MoreHaiku Poems: How to Write a Haiku
Haiku poems are short poems that use brevity and close observation, as well as natural imagery, to find powerful insight. Combining the restraint of short-form poetry with centuries of tradition,…
Read MoreWhat is a Narrative Poem? Definition and Examples
Writers who want to set their stories in verse may be interested in the narrative poem. One of the oldest literary art forms in the history of written language, narrative…
Read MoreWhat is a Prose Poem? Understanding Prose Poetry
Few literary genres allow for experimentation quite as easily as prose poetry. Blending the techniques of prose with the emotion and lyricism of poetry, the best prose poems uncover subconscious…
Read MoreHow to Write a Poem, Step-by-Step
To learn how to write a poem step-by-step, let’s start where all poets start: the basics. This article is an in-depth introduction to how to write a poem. We first…
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