If you’re having trouble choosing a subject, try closing your eyes and visualizing events, people, or objects that are meaningful to you. Select one that stands out, particularly if it is one that you have an emotional connection to.
It can be helpful to decide ahead of time what you want to say about the topic; if writing about a beloved deceased pet, your goal may be to recapture the pet’s personality and character in your poem. You may also want to consider how you can choose certain wording or phrasing to describe the subject, situation, or theme you are trying to portray. If you are trying to describe a fight scene, for example, you may want to use short words with sharp consonants like cut, bash, hit, kick, punch, jab, jump. Keep in mind longer words with soft sounds, as well as breaks between lines or words, will cause the reader to slow down.
For example, if you are describing your last birthday party, you may start by describing who was at the party, the gifts you received, and how you felt during the party. Or you may decide to write a poem about your pet rock and imagine how the rock would see the world. If you’re stuck on how to describe a certain event or feeling, use sensory descriptions that explore sight, touch, taste, smell, and sound. So instead of simply writing, “I blew out the candles,” you may want to include sensory details like the heat of the candles on the cake, the smell of burning wax, and the way the candles on the cake looked right before you blew them out. [2] X Research source
Don’t worry too much about creating a perfect first draft, as you will edit and revise it in your next draft.
Look at places where you could expand or improve on a description. For example, instead of telling the reader, “they were happy” you could use a more visual description, such as “they were wearing big smiles. ” Also remember that poetry does not necessitate the use of complete sentences, so “they were wearing big smiles” might be shortened to “wearing big smiles. " A poem can have logic without using complete sentences. Think about how the breaks between words or lines affects the meaning of the poem. If you’re describing a roller coaster ride, maybe you want to play around with the line structure and have words move up or down the page. Or if you’re describing a moment where you felt trapped or claustrophobic, perhaps you want to condense the lines so they appear as one block of text. [5] X Research source
The goal is to create a free verse poem that explores your subject or theme in a unique way that sounds good and has emotion or feeling. Be sure to ask your audience if they think your poem has all of these elements.
Though there are no rules for a free verse poem, it is still a form of artistic expression, so its important to create striking images and emotions that your reader can see and feel and to express yourself clearly.
“After the Sea” by Walt Whitman[8] X Research source “Little Father” by Li-Young Lee[9] X Research source “Winter Poem” by Nikki Giovanni[10] X Research source “Fog” by Carl Sandberg[11] X Research source “in Just-” by e. e. cummings[12] X Research source
Identify any metaphors or similes. [13] X Research source Think about how they work effectively to reveal details or create images associated with the subject of the poem. Make note of any examples of alliteration, which is a literary device where the first sound in a series of words is the same. Alliteration is one way the poet can create a particular mood, feeling, or sound to the poem. [14] X Research source For example, in Whitman’s poem “After the Storm”, there are two instances of alliteration in the first line of the poem, “sea-ship” and “whistling winds”, which then set the tone for the rest of the poem. Identify any personification. Personification is a device that takes an inanimate object and describes it as though it were animate or alive. [15] X Research source For example, in Sandberg’s “Fog”, the fog is personified as having “little cat feet”, and in Giovanni’s “Winter Poem”, the snowflake is personified as “happy” and the other snowflakes are addressed as “its cousins and brothers. ” Consider if the poem breaks with the traditional form of a line poem, and how the poem’s form adds to the overall meaning or theme of the poem. For example, in e. e. cumming’s poem “in Just-”, the breaking up of the lines so there is more space between certain words and the arrangement of certain words so they move down the page suggest a certain choppiness or shift downward in the poem.
