poetry writing app

poetry writing app

Exploring the Art of Poetry: A Comprehensive Guide to Writing and Appreciating Poetry

1. Introduction to Poetry

– Different poetry components: Whether you are studying the subject or just reading an unfamiliar poem, it’s especially useful to know something about various formulation or philosophical components of poetry. Then you have a way to examine the poem effectively and an expanded toolkit for discussing poetry with others. Some naturally move toward the technological aspects of a poem, examining the accuracy and freshness of metaphors, the effective rhythm and rhyme, and other such literary strategies. However, a reader can, and should, enjoy much of the content in a poem without perhaps even noticing much of a poem’s literary technology during an initial reading: its emotion, its subject matter, its major life connections. Behaving effectively as a reader, by oneself or during classroom discussions, should ultimately be the reader’s objective.

– Measuring poetic skill: Some people are naturally better at mathematics or cooking; some are naturally good at poetry. A first read of Adam Zagajewski’s poems, and we know that here is a man who understands the world in a unique, effective way – and can then convey it. We might describe this ability as a talent, an intuition, a vision, an authorial judgment, or a combination of other factors. More technically, we can say that poets often show real skill at choosing the best diction, imagery, enjambment patterns, and other poetic elements to express their sentiments and ideas. To grasp these “poetic skills” well enough to write effective poetry of your own, you must understand poetry’s many literary devices thoroughly and practice their use regularly. Along this line, practicing other skills will enhance your poetry; an in-depth cultural awareness, deep empathy, good psychological insight, and precise language usage all positively affect the creation of poetry.

Below is a broad overview of the field of poetry. When you write or read poetry, consider the following points carefully:

2. Understanding the Elements of Poetry

Understanding the Elements of Poetry Part of the academic purpose in studying the elements of poetry is to gain a depth understanding of the meaning. Without such an understanding, the poet’s work or concepts focused on in the lines, stanzas, and verses of poetry disadvantages the reader. Although everyone has a different perspective and interprets literature in their particular way, the distinction in knowing the elements will help one gain a clearer understanding of any poem, or indeed, of any work of literature, text, or media. Some details that are shared here will change the way in which many readers think or approach reading, or offers the inexperienced poet the foreknowledge that he or she will need in order to contribute to the art of letters eminently.

To understand poetry and how it works, readers must first understand the structure. The following section explores the building blocks of poetry, which are known as “elements.” These elements differ from the elements of prose and are quite beneficial to start concentrating on early on in your endeavors. Structural units, called “devices,” are also considered to be essential and serve as tools for the poet when crafting poetry. These units are quite imperative, for without them, poems would lack depth or texture, such as we find in fully developed literary works. Only by understanding these devices and how and why they work can a poet begin to grow, and he or she must use them with consideration and command if they hopes to create elegant poetry of quality.

3. Techniques and Styles in Poetry Writing

Metaphor is a direct comparison between two things that are basically dissimilar. An example of a metaphor would be “You are my sunshine.” Simile is a comparison of two different things or ideas through the use of words like or as. An example of a simile is “The street was like a furnace.” Personification may be defined as giving human qualities to something that is not human. Every language is a collection of sounds that come from human speech. While word sounds exist in all languages, they are a fundamental part of poetry. The sounds can be meaningful and create unique effects. Techniques used to produce these effects include alliteration, assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia. Rhythm is the regular pattern of stress or beats in a line of verse. These patterns give poetry a musical quality. When you read aloud a poem, you hear this musical quality called the poem’s rhythm. All poems have some kind of rhythm. Rhythm in poetry comes from patterns of sounds and pauses. Such a pattern is called a meter. The two types of meter are scansion and foot. Symbol is a word or object that stands for another word or object. Personal, cultural, and universal symbols are evident in everyday life. Symbols are often used in order to visualize thoughts, moods, and emotions. The tone of a poem is the poet’s emotional stance toward his subject. Tone is the emotional coloring or atmosphere of the poem. Blending all these techniques into a poem allows it to become truly vivid and multi-dimensional.

Poetry is a vital art form that uses language in a musical and intricate way to promote creativity and expression among its readers and writers. Numerous techniques and styles figure into the creation of a poem. These techniques include metaphor, simile, personification, sound, rhythm, symbol, and tone. Some of the prevalent types of poetry include the epic, lyric, sonnet, ballad, blank verse, and free verse.

4. Utilizing a Poetry Writing App for Creative Expression

The more poetry that is written – the better writers we all become. A great way to raise the interest level of your students while teaching poetry is by using a practical application that utilizes technology. Provided below, you will find activities and ideas that can be incorporated with the LineVision app to excite your students, raise questions, and get them ready to explore the art of poetry. Perhaps an advanced assessment tool is LineVision, developed by John WI Scott, a former educator from East Noble School Corporation. LineVision, in his own words, is a writing classroom application available for iPad/iPhone that can be used to experience and understand the “line” as an element of poetry.

The LineVision app may be used to analyze meanings of words and lines while the structure of a poem is being composed. This act of analyzing the meaning of the poem’s lines while constructing it assists a student in creating a poem that is authentic and has purpose. Writing a poem on demand is authentically manifested if meaning, purpose, and structure are considered when the poem is crafted. Poetry writing is a process! While teaching poetry, your primary goal is to interest a student in the immeasurable benefits of writing poetry. The more interest that is shown – the more time students will spend writing poetry.

LineVision utilizes technology to assist students in writing poetry and exploring poetic forms. In Writing Expansively – an Assignment, develop mature writing techniques by selecting a first and third line from separate poems and incorporating them into a new poem. The result is lines that have been baked out authentically.

5. Conclusion and Further Resources

If you want to know more, you should have knowledge of the four “tools” of poetry, knowledge of the prosody of poetry, and knowledge of the history and elements of poetry. Good introductions to these subjects are The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms, and The Ode Less Traveled: Unlocking the Poet Within by Stephen Fry, The Making of a Sonnet: A Norton Anthology by Edward Hirsch, and the list goes on.

Some recent poetry anthologies worth exploring are those edited by J.D. McClatchy and Paul Muldoon, and the annual Pushcart Prizes.

The Metaphysical Poets, ed. Helen Gardner

The Selected Poems of Alexander Pushkin

The collected poems of Emily Dickinson

The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot

The Prelude by William Wordsworth

The collected poems of John Keats

Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge

The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser

The Love Sonnets by Shakespeare

The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer

The Canzoniere by Petrarch

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

Eclogues and Sonnets by Petrarch

The Metamorphoses by Ovid

The Aeneid by Vergil

The Nature of Things by Lucretius

There is no single canon of great poems, but we may begin with the following: