Poetry Techniques
What is 'rhyme'?
Rhyme is a way of repeating sounds. If you take the word "gate", that rhymes with "mate" - I've repeated the "ah" and the "t" but changed the very first sound. Essentially, that's what rhyme is. We seem to like it. We seem to like that echoing. It's a way of linking words that maybe otherwise would not be linked. If you link gate with mate, you'll suddenly be starting thinking of maybe you met your mate by the gate and turning that into a poem. So, rhyme is a way of linking ideas based on the sounds that those ideas make.
Does a poem have to rhyme?
With the question 'do poems have to rhyme?', the best way to think about it, is if you read the first translations of the Bible. They took a Hebrew poem, often called The Song of Solomon, and translated it into what we would now call free-verse. The same goes for the Psalms. So, people knew in the 17th century that you could have poems that didn't have to rhyme. Now, it took a long time for people to have the nerve to start writing new poems in a way that didn't rhyme. I think the first person who did it was probably the German poet Henry Heiner who wrote some poems about looking at the North Sea, and he discovered that you could just write a contemplation of the North Sea and not make it rhyme. And ever since then, people have thought it was a very good idea.
Do different types of rhyme create different effects?
If you make your rhymes less obvious and perhaps even less perfect, this would give you more scope to say things in a slightly more complex way. The rhyme becomes if you like, it doesn't become a straight jacket and doesn't funnel you down one path that probably will end up sounding slightly comic.
Is it cheating to use a rhyming dictionary?
I most certainly do not think it is cheating to use a rhyming dictionary. Rhyming dictionaries throw up all kinds of extraordinary surprises, because in English we do not always spell the same sounds in the same way, like making 'u' sounds - I can think the use of 'u' as in "you". So you are, in a way, constantly surprised by what words rhyme. And so allow yourself that luxury of flicking over pages of the rhyming dictionary. I have never thought that together and weather rhyme, but of course they do.
How do I convey meaning in a poem?
Meaning comes to us in poems through several different levels. We always think of words as referring to things, so that's if you like the semantic level, but there's a musical level with poems. That's to say they're rhythms, and the sounds you're making, like alliteration, assonance, and rhyme. Also if you repeat things, you imply meanings. So, for example, if you just said "Rain raining, rain raining, rain raining," you're suggesting it's raining for a long time. Also if you frame a poem you suggest that there's some kind of continuity from the way you opened the poem and the fact that you've repeated it at the end of a poem. You can create pauses, you can hurry things up and you can slow them down. You can introduce jazz and syncopation to suggest some modernity. Poems have a whole musical frame that also conveys meaning.
How can I use symbolism effectively in my poem?
In a way, when you write, you can't escape symbolism because if you just say I'll now write about a table, the question in the reader's eyes , well, why have you thought about that table? A wood table, as you write about it will always be representative of something more then the table because you've chosen it. At the same time there are things that are obviously more symbolic in our culture than other things. You know, if you use a word like shield, or if you use a word like sword, you know these have long symbolic meanings that stretch right back through hundreds of years. My own feeling as any prejudices, if you try to write modern, emblematic symbolic verse, we find it quite difficult to unlock. But that's not to speak against it. Where would we be without symbolism?
What's the difference between imagery and symbolism in poetry?
Usually we use the word symbol to mean a specific word that we understand to be representing something else. So just as we say in life that "an orb held by the monarch represents the kingdom that the monarch rules over," so you could say that some things are symbolic. So if suddenly you're lying on your back and you're looking at a bird flying free and you talk about this lark flying and getting freer and freer then in a way the lark symbolizes freedom. Imagery usually we use it to mean something slightly less explicit and more ambiguous, not tied up so neatly. We usually use the word symbol to say that is symbolic of that but an image resonates. It has lots of meanings that you can speculate about.
How can I use rhythm effectively in my poem?
How can I use diction effectively in my poem?
Language has what we call, loosely, consonants and vowels. And the consonants are the stopping points, where we're using our lips and our tongue against our teeth or something at the back of the throat. And then we have these open sounds, which we call vowels. If you repeat the closing ones, we tend to call that alliteration. I once had an advert through the door when I was a little kid that said, "Britain's Biggest Bunker Bargain." Well obviously I'm repeating the 'buh.' That's alliteration. With assonance, you're repeating the open sound. The cat sat on the mat. The 'a' sound is what I'm repeating, as well as the rhyme, of course. So that's assonance, when you repeat the open sound. You can play with these and use these. Quite what the effect is, no one ever really quite knows. If you write a poem, and you have a lot of m's in it, people will tell that you that that's very musical and murmury. If you write poem or a line with a lot of s in it, people will say that you're hissing and you're snakelike and quite angry. But it doesn't have to be. So I would say always use those things with care, and think out why you're using them.