Emotional Poetry

[Zuzy]

WHAT DO WE BEGIN WITH?

Seeing as a large percentage of us are teenagers, we tend to like to write about our emotions. We’re all on hormonal highs, who doesn’t get upset now and then and wants to put it into word? But rather than be like everyone else in the world and write in a journal, we want to write a poem so we can share it with are friends, because misery likes company, right? So we start writing…

I’m drowning in my tears,
Because I feel so alone.
I see so many other happy people.
Why am I alone?
I’m scared to talk to anyone.
What will they think?
They will think I am alone.

Now, mind I wrote this as a bit of a hyperbole, to exaggerate it. I also just wrote it for this article, so it is really lacking true emotion behind it, but hopefully I can make you think there is emotion behind it, in the way I fix it up.

SO WHAT IS WRONG?

Don’t think I’m saying everything like looks like the above is horrible I’m just showing you how you can move one step up. The two things I would like to pick on for emotional poetry are the poet’s focus, and word choice. (And maybe I’ll scatter some other things in for the heck of it and not realize it.)

There is, honestly, so much to consider when writing a poem, but I can only touch on so much here. I’m ignoring style, structure, rhyming, and rhythm. Forget it exists, for now. Let’s stick to the points I want to work with.

What do I mean when I say the poet’s focus? I’m talking about who we are thinking of when we are writing the poem. Me, of course! I bet you are thinking that, aren’t you? And it’s true, when you are writing an emotional poem about something you experienced and want to express, you are going to become a very selfish writing. If you don’t plan on turning this emotional conundrum into good-to-read poetry, then forget I’m even talking to you. But, if you want to right real poetry that people are going to enjoy, you are going to want to forget yourself all together and think of the reader while writing.

Don’t tell us how you feel, NO, don’t even show us how you feel. Make us feel it. Emotional poetry often times turn into, to steal Snoink’s word, a shopping list. You list the things that happened, followed by a few lines of boo-hoo’s, and call it a day. This isn’t good enough. Put us in your seat, and yes do tell us why we are feeling this way, but make sure we feel it. You want to make us cry/scream/laugh/freak out, what ever you are feeling you want the reader to feel. This is just as close to ‘show, don’t tell’ as poetry will ever get, because telling is the most boring thing in the world. Showing is one step up, and from there is feeling.

For more on this or related topics:
Navel Gazing (http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/viewtopic.php?p=164609) by Snoink.
Making Your Reader Feel (http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/viewtopic.php?t=13613) by Me


On to the other idea, word choice. Since words are what make up a poem, we should use good words, right? Why use things like ugly, crying, and pain, when you can say deformed, weeping, and torture? Exactly. For every word out there, there is one better than it. (In most cases.) Really all I’m saying is, when writing the poem, don’t choose flimsy words that are thrown around like anything. Pain is such a general term, but is it torture, or ache? Both torture and ache have a connotation with them, they make you think of things besides just pain, and that is what makes them good. Pain, on the other hand, is a plan-and-simple word. Strive for the better words, the words that express how you feel/want your reader to feel in a more vivid way.

[b]AN ENDING

I like closure. So to close, I’m going to quote some people. Also, I would like to make a note: I was bad, I only covered what I will call negative poetry. I didn’t talk about happy poetry, sorry folks. I’m sure the same can be said for that, too, though.

"Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things." - T.S. Eliot

"Poetry should please by a fine excess and not by singularity. It should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost as a remembrance." - John Keats

[Nyx]

This was really helpful! Specially because my emotional poems are often like the first example you used:blush: Maybe I'll reread this and try a new emotional poem:)