MORE ON WRITING FREE VERSE POETRY Part II

Hello fellow Netwest Writers. Below is part of a talk I gave Oct. 21, 2007, Young Harris College, at the state meeting of the Georgia Poetry Society. Please feel free to share this with others, but do not reprint or publish without my permission. 2-4-08, Nancy Simpson

continued Part II

4) Master poets from the past fine-tuned the sound of their poems. Free verse poets now have a hard job. After avoiding meter and rhyme, we still have to make our poems sing with sound. Our poems must be pleasing to the ear.

Sound in free verse is accomplished with different techniques. We use of alliteration. Our best alliteration is welcome, but again, alliteration seems to be not favored by the Literary Magazine editors of today. What is more popular today is the use of consonance, where you repeat the consonant sound in the middle or at the end of the word. Assonance, much appreciated now, is a more subtle way to build sound. Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds such as (this example using long i sound)
like a line of white mice.

Another way free verse poets build cadence into their poems is to prefer and to use one syllable words. When you use one syllable words, each syllable gets a beat. Beat is the foundation of music. The use of multi syllabic words in the same line can ruin a good poem fast. If you have a beautiful word you cannot part with, try using it as a title. If you insist on using multi syllabic words in the body of the poem, go back and hone the poem to mostly one and two syllable words. Do this to secure the sound.

5) The poets of old connected with their reader on a sensory level. There is no better way to hook your reader then to use sensory images. Why does it work now the same as it worked then? Think of it. A
new born human has no other way to learn, for years, except to take in information through the senses - sight, sound, smell, touch, taste. As a human, if nothing terrible happens, we use our senses every day
of our lives, until the moment we die. There is no better, no faster way to connect with your reader than through sensory images.

6. The poets of old connected with their reader on an emotional level? Free verse poets must also make that connection. How is it done? Choice of words, words drenched in emotion: When the reader reads these words, they feel emotionally connected. “family”, “mother”, “frown”, “mock”, “smack”, “nothing remains”, “wreck”, “battered on one knuckle”, “prison,” “divorce papers”, Word choice. That is how you put emotion into your poems.

7. The poets of old connected with their reader on an intellectual level. Free verse poets must also make that intellectual connection. The best way is not to tell the reader everything. What keeps people reading poetry today is the joy they find in being able to use their own intelligence, to be able fill in the gaps of what is not said, and to be able to say, “Yes. I know.”

--Nancy Simpson Part III will be posted 2-5-08 on this site