How to Write a Poem

Many people would have pondered across this question, as they go through a Literature course or after they read a poem. In fact, we face many poems in our lives, which are music lyrics, phonics, children's books, and the fiction or romance books. Poem is an intuitive matter which jolts up people's minds, as it can be very concise, yet emotionally overwhelming. Perhaps, this simplicity compels people to reading poems.

However, do you not feel that reading poem is insufficient? You feel so many emotions as you go through series of events in your life. Writing a poem will make you surge your emotions to a level where you can express them wisely. It is like an art form of texts - it can take a very long time, or can take a few seconds to write in impromptu manner. Yet, we should not forget the original purpose of poem - to deliver a message, and to deliver emotions.

Writing a poem, for me, is extremely difficult. Anyone who sees my poems will not understand anything, but thinks it is cool because there are difficult vocabulary used, or simply because, you can't understand. This is a completely wrong mind-set when you read a poem - when you don't understand, it is either because that poem is bad, or you are a bad reader. Usually, it is the latter, but for my poems, the former applies greatly.

There may be grammatical errors which were unintended, yet people might misunderstand them as a message due to poetic license, allowing me to write a poem in a sense where grammatical errors can be ignored. Let me give you a preview of such poem:

Aunt Jennifer’s TigersBy Adrienne Rich 

Aunt Jennifer’s tigers prance across a screen,
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.
They do not fear the men beneath the tree;
They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.

Aunt Jennifer’s finger fluttering through her wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer’s hand.

When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie
Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.
The tigers in the panel that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.

Don't you feel that there is something amiss? Yes, it is grammar. This is one feeling you get as you read a poem. Writing a poem does not require you to write by following specific regulations. This is a luxury of liberty you get when you write a poem, in my opinion. You might find it very weird at first when you are used to write essays and journals, but as you start writing, you will be allured to this only-available aspect of poem, and continue on.

However, whenever you write a poem, there must be something you must remember all the time. It is to deliver a message to a reader. Let us read a different form of a poem, called haiku, a popular Japanese-oriented 5-7-5 poem type that is used widely in many genres of cultural arts.

• An afternoon breeze
  expels cold air, along with
  the fallen brown leaves.
  
  (from http://www.wikihow.com/Sample/Nature-Haiku)

I gave an example of haiku because it follows a specific order. Let us look at Shakespearean sonnet, which follows an iambic pentameter, a rhyme scheme which consists of ten syllables, according to Wikipedia. At the same time, a rhyming couplet, which is a rhyme at the end of line, is used simultaneously.

PROLOGUE

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

(from http://shakespeare.mit.edu/romeo_juliet/romeo_juliet.1.0.html)

William Shakespeare is a genius - he had put in a unique order in his poem, and calls it a sonnet. This is a prologue of Romeo and Juliet, where Chorus reads it out before the start of Act 1 Scene 1, to give audience a brief summary and a forewarning that the story is a tragedy.

There are so many literary devices which you can use to ensure that you can write better in your poems, and these are extremely important to make sure that what you are delivering in the poem is emphasised through your analytical skills. However, do keep in mind that this might disturb your reading skill of poem, as you're looking into the woods, but not the forest. There are rhymes, alliterations, imagery, symbolism, similes, metaphors, hyperbole, and so many more. These are usually associated with poems and they are widely used in different languages due to their purposes. Do you remember nursery rhymes, or ABC songs? They are easy to remember not only because of simple music with repetitive notes, but because specific rhyme schemes are used to end off the sound with a pronunciation respelling of "i:"; at Shakespearean era, there was no script, and how would actors have memorised those long texts? With the help of rhymes, it was possible to do so. Let's look at ABC song and churn this properly.

A - B - C - D - E - F - G
H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P
Q - R - S - T - U- V,
W - X - Y and Z
Now I know my ABC's
Next time won't you sing with me.

(from http://www.metrolyrics.com/alphabet-song-lyrics-children.html)

Well, but is this everything in writing a poem? Not really, in my opinion. To write a poem, you must continue writing until you get sick and tired of it. This is to make sure that you can keep up your constancy of writing a poem and feel so used to writing one that you become more expressive. Whenever I have a feeling to write a poem, I always do, and do so on my phone, because I hate my handwriting. In my opinion, poem does not necessarily have to be written with pencil or whatever. That is a very traditional and conservative thought that many poets might be thinking of, but this is 21st century. Write your own poem that is full of imagination and your new order. Numbers of poems you can write are infinite, just like how you cannot imagine how big this world will be. No matter how long, or how short your poem is, it is still a poem. That is how you write it. Imagine, think, express, and ensure that readers can decipher them, not only yourself. Simply typing some bullshit with keyboard does not let you create a masterpiece.

Before I end, I would like to state that writing a poem is not easy. As you write more and more, you will feel that writing a poem is a very hard task. Firstly, people may not understand them, and if everyone can understand, it fails as a great poem. In my opinion, a great poem is something that leaves us with a floating question mark above our heads, and turning them to exclamation marks. I didn't say that the colours of those punctuation will be akin to each other, nor the shape. There might be different opinions on one specific poem, but real answer only lies on the writer. It is completely fine for readers to be ridiculed upon writer's message, unless you feel that you've done a bad job in writing that bemused them unnecessarily. Do not over-complicate, but try to simplify your language, and write a very concise poem. As long as you can deliver your emotions correctly to readers, I believe that it is a successful poem.

Do not be afraid of writing a poem. What others may see are a simple text, a black colour, a white paper, or painting - but you know it yourself. You wrote an extraordinary text, that is unique, and only you can write it. Be bold and be different from others; be innovative, in terms of imagining and expressing. That is how I write a poem, and how I recommend you to start writing a poem.

Reflections on Dead Poets Society and Literature

This was my Literature homework that I had to submit. I think it is worth sharing, and do comment if you have your own opinion, too!

1.    My reflections in general…

I watched Dead Poets Society when I was Secondary 1, but with the help of Korean subtitles. I felt the shiver down my spines again, when Ethan Hawke stood on the table, around the end of the movie, and says: “O’ Captain! My Captain!”. (It was also because of the air-conditioned environment at my home, and AVA. What a coincidence!)

It felt so much different from then, because I could only understand it superficially. Watching it again this time, I tried to listen out closely, especially for the music used and hilarious jokes. I was immersed very deeply into Robin Williams’ act of John Keating. Being a teacher who seems like going out of the rules that incarcerate the students, for me, I thought it was to symbolise the harsh education system of higher standards wanted. I was so surprised because Dead Poets Society was a film directed in 1989, and yet, there is almost no change to the education system – maybe except that there is no more teachers-rule-students pressure. Teachers’ Day coming up, I also felt that this is what a true teacher must do, in order for students to be creative and intellectual, but not acting stupidly – the strong bond that embodies teachers and students.

Another thing I felt was about Robin Williams’ death. I felt like standing up too at AVA, to show him my small gratitude of his decease. I could not believe that he could suffer from depression with such friendly manners he has acted out in the film. Maybe because time passes, and time wears things out – something that was connected to reality with the film kept on reminded me of jovial but uncomfortable moments of my life.

Indeed, watching it again was not boring at all. It was a new experience after all, as this time I was watching it in a much different perspective, thanks to the literary devices I have learnt from Literature.

2.    After these 7 months, I feel that…

I feel that there is something different in me drastically. Perhaps it could be due to the musical, but what I believe very steadfastly is the learning process of Literature. I have never felt that studying Literature could be so fun, because I found books very dull and boring. I did not understand why I had to read books, even though some were fun, because it took so much time for me to read one book. I could not even finish a single English book in the rental date given from the library. I also had the feeling that I could never reach the realm of my mom, being so knowledgeable of histories of the world and how it has advanced.

It was unapproachable, but after these seven months, I could take a step into that realm.

A step – I believe that each step makes me walk, and soon run, then leap. It enabled me to read. Books were not boring but they were filled with so much entertainment. Imagining each scene from the page was so inspiring and dream-like; I had no sense of focus into reading, until I recently read Murakami Haruki’s Kafka on the Shore.

Every movie poster seems different to me now; because I know that it signifies something. Every inference from the poem, intertextuality – portray what the writer wants us to decode by encoding it. It is like discovering a password and logging into the system, as though I am hacking into the cyber world that I was always interested in. These seven months trained me to think that there is a purpose for anything that the writer does, even though some may not have been intended. While reading Murakami’s book, I said to myself: “Who cares, it is my thought anyway!”. No matter how I translated to the contents into my brain, as long as I got the main message, nothing could go wrong. I believe so strongly that these seven months were very valuable and happy moments for me that would be unforgettable, and I do not want to forget them at all, because they are very precious for me to put a step here.

3.    I realise that I now…

I realise that I now am a better person than last time. Films were always watched with Korean subtitles, as they were difficult to comprehend with English sometimes. That obstacle was removed magically as I joined Literature and I chew the words one by one, not eschewing them. I feel that I can express myself more confidently.

However, it is an adverse effect too, as confidence becomes conceit usually. I cannot express fluently because of my lack of basic knowledge on sentence structure and grammar. That is my disadvantage which I feared before joining Literature. I thought to myself: “How am I going to read a poem if I cannot even read a single book properly?”. Indeed, it was the other way round. It was to read a poem first and to analyse the literary devices used in the poems, and their purposes served, then reading a single or six-hundred paged books could be read within two weeks, without any difficulty.

I always realise that I can understand English texts much better and I try not to miss out the details. This is a problem again because I do not look at the big picture again. I tend to look at the trees instead of the forest, because I feel that the details should not be left out. Indeed, this is the other way round again, most of the time – but I only realise it when I get my English essay back, having failure marks. I realise that I am still weak at the subject English itself, and have to work doubly or triply harder for attaining better marks for my favourites subjects – English and English Literature.

4.    My favourite lines from this film are…

“It's not the Bible, you're not gonna go to Hell for this.”

-       John Keating

This was a humorous line that made me laugh of John Keating. There are two reasons why I giggled at this line. Firstly, it was fun in a way that Robin Williams’ said it, and the reactions of the students were active with laughter. Secondly, it was a brutal fact of education in many countries around the world, aiming for higher standards, where every introduction page and nonsensical rules matter as well. We fear that we will go to Hell, in fact – but we do not feel that the book is not a Bible, but a textbook.

“Just don't let your poems be ordinary. “

-       John Keating

This was said by Robin Williams when Hopkins came up with an incredulous and effortless poem: “The cat sat on the mat.”. A simple rhyme that is weird to be called as a rhyme, because it is not on different lines, was detected by John Keating as a ‘negative score on Pritchard scale’. He emphasises too that he is not laughing at Hopkins, but the things surrounding him. Teacher encouraging a student who is acting very weird, which may be purposeful, instead of reprimanding him, made me feel very thankful that I have such teachers around me in the school. Students sometimes deserve to be scolded, but when it is unnecessary, I assume that teachers should cheer the student up to be different from the original style, which may be wrong.

“Yawp!”

-       Todd Anderson

Todd, being so introverted yet wants to show his thoughts that were planned carefully, was motivated by Mr. Keating to ‘yawp’. A barbaric loud cry or yell, for such person, seems to be impossible, but Todd does it. This reflected me on how I should entrust my juniors during CCA times and allowing them to have time to catch up with what they are slow at. Being patient yet uplifting at the same time made me recall on how I instructed my juniors.

“What will your verse be?”

-       John Keating

Speciality and talent always lie in every member of human race. It shines or not, is to be found out by the students themselves, but teachers should be able to guide them properly to let them think of it. We, being special, sometimes do not even know that and goes off-course during medical studies, which is coerced into the students in Dead Poets Society, and real-life society. A verse, also defines about speaking, other than the line that is in textual form, is trying to tell us what we want to say, and catalysing us to say something that we want to speak for, but do not hide it. That verse, will be the motto that will carry your life.

“O Captain! My Captain!”

-       Todd Anderson

Perhaps the most heart-warming yet heart-breaking scene of this film, Todd stands upon the table like he is a daring, barbaric warrior, ready to ‘yawp’ for his teacher, leaving the room, being his last day. There is no way he will come back, but that courageous sound of Todd who was initially reticent, encourages Mr. Keating instead of how he developed such students. Other students stand up as well, and this is the most memorable scene of DPS, other than Neil committing suicide. “Thank you, boys. Thank you.”. This speech ensues by John Keating.

Personally, I did not add Neil’s line, because I did not like the intention of the director of suicide being the best choice for Neil. In School 2013, the Korean drama, it is conveyed like an inference of Dead Poets Society of suicidal but he gives up suicidal, with the help of the poem that the teacher read out, and he masticates it, giving up dying. There is no way it can be “Nothing.”. A hopeful message instead of realism was more emphasised for me, so I disliked Neil’s line at that scene, saying “Nothing.”.