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Writing Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [poetry]

Short form writing, often focused on the aesthetics of words as much as the meaning. This tag should be used for any questions relating to poems, including poetry formatting and technique, poetry critiques, and the publishing of poetry.

233 questions
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Are there any metrical (scansion) dictionaries?

There are plenty of rhyming dictionaries; is there such a thing as a metrical dictionary? Sometimes in fixed-form poetry, I need a word to fit a specific position in a line, and it would be really handy to have a database that organized words by…
Aaron Davies
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What exactly is "Conceptual Writing?"

I've seen this term (and its variations such as "conceptual poetry") used a lot to describe works such as Christian Bök's Eunoia. I have a sense of what it means, but I've never seen a solid definition. Sources such as Wikipedia seem to be silent on…
user608
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Does this riddle abuse language to make it fit into verse?

Not being a native speaker I'm unable to tell if my poetry sounds fine or just awkward - I know I'm abusing grammar to fit rhymes and rhythm, but the question is: am I abusing it too much? Does that sound as poetic English to a native ear, or is it…
SF.
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How do you manage all the different aspects of writing poetry?

Every time I try to write a poem I find myself incredibly stuck. It feels to me like poetry has so many different aspects- meter, structure, rhyming, lingual aesthetics (not to mention semantics), all crammed into a tightly confined structure (yes I…
EpsilonVector
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Do poets care about the meter when writing for the first time?

I wonder if poets write their verses in the correct meter at first or if they review it later after writing it just to express their thought. I'm not sure if it's possible for someone to be as skillfully to write at the correct meter at first;…
m26a
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Is a reference to the seasons required when writing a yadu?

I’m learning about different rhyming schemes and forms of poetry from around the world, and one that intrigues me a lot right now is the yadu: The yadu is a Burmese climbing-rhyme verse. Each of the stanzas —up to three in all— has 5 lines. The…
Hazel へいぜる
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Is this sentence ambiguous?

I'm trying to write something sort of poetic sounding. Instead of memories let's discover the present that we wanted to search for. I'm thinking that maybe I should write the word "moment" after "present" to make it unambiguous. I would rather…
language hacker
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Is there a technical term for a rhyme using both the end of one sentence, and the beginning of the next?

Is there a word for when the last word of a line is the first word of a sentence, which creates a rhyme when combined with the preceding word? That might not be clear on its own; this excerpt from "Satisfied" (from the musical Hamilton, written by…
Andrew Clark
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How to collaborate on/ create a poetry and prose anthology

I’m an Admin for a Facebook group of poetry and prose writers (mainly Dutch), with about 5,000 very active and talented members. I’m thinking about creating a book with some of the members where each of the participants contributes a couple of poems…
user16881
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Should you publish or share poetry that was written simply in an angry or sad rant?

I've written a poem exploring my conflicting emotions of anger and the joy that the anger keeps supressing. Is it appropriate to publish a literary work based on such intense negative emotions?
Jenny H
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What is this form of poetry called?

I am poet and a blogger, and was writing a poem today for my blog. It went something like: So, are you missing me? Missing me so much that you crave, crave to meet me right now... Does anybody know what this form of poetry is called, where a part…
c0da
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Tips for writing poetry in forms

I've written poetry for a long time, but most of it is free verse. Sometimes I want to experiment with forms (sonnets, villanelles, etc.). Are there any suggestions for working with the more formal structures, rhymes, etc.? I have several books on…
Terri Simon
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Types/Categories of rhyme?

By type in this case I mean ways of grouping rhyme. There are a number of ways to categorise rhyme, based on what element you're looking at. for example masculine/feminine refers to the number of syllables, while family/Perfect refers to the…
Alexander Troup
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How to write metered poetry, when you can only read 'phonetically'?

I have dyslexia, and when I pronounce words in my head the syllable count and stress doesn't reflect the way the words are pronounced in everyday speech. I think you might describe it as phonetic pronounciation? For instance, the IPA pronunciation…
ProseFerret
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Paragraph break in poetry

I am translating an essay on translation of poetry. In this bit: Allegria di naufragi (Joy of Shipwrecks, 1919), established what remains for many people the quintessential Ungaretti poem: short lines, often only a single word; frequent paragraph…
anna
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