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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.

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What makes a poem a poem?

Warning: long question. To start it off lightheartedly, here is the topic as doggerel. There are plenty of questions with titles like these: "What is this form?" — "Can I do this in poems?" — "How can I be more poetic?" and so on. What I'm after,…
Luke Sawczak
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Is there a name for the technique in songs/poems, where the rhyming pattern primes the listener for a certain line, which never comes?

Usually used for comedic purposes, for example in Shrek: Welcome to Duloc, such a perfect town Here we have some rules, let us lay them down Don't make waves, stay in line and we'll get along fine Duloc is a perfect place Please keep off the…
Sean
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How to display a duet in lyrics?

I wonder if someone can tell me whether there is a convention when laying out a lyric to show different parts (or even a chorus). In my novel, there are a number of poems and lyrics. They are set in the usual style of indented and italicised.…
Miriam
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Lists of Suggested Magazines to Submit To

I recently began writing poetry again. I would like to look into submitting my poems to a magazine. Where can I find a list of literary magazines through which I could sort to find a possible fit?
justkt
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What to look for when criticizing poetry?

A recent question got me thinking about how to criticize poetry well and I realized I am not very good at it. I can do themes, and that's about it. And I'm not even sure that should be covered unless explicitly asked for as was part of the issue in…
Summer
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Does a Haiku need to have exactly 17 syllables?

Having 17 syllables is in the definition of Haiku, but does it have to have exactly 17 syllables? Is this usually followed strictly, or is it more of a guideline rather than a rule? I am asking about Haikus written in English, not Japanese.
Eduard Florinescu
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Scansion tool for checking my meter

Are there any software tools available that will help me dissect my meter? I have always been extremely poor at scansion and while my writing doesn't suffer terribly for it, it makes writing strict meter very difficult for me. In fact I don't think…
Summer
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How do you get over the fear of exposing yourself in writing?

I really feel like writing, in all its forms, is a very nice way to express myself especially since I'm an introvert, but I'm afraid people would know how I think and know my thinking process and label me as being wrong. I fear exposing something…
Yostina
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How can I translate my poems in English that it doesn't sound odd/non poetic for English speaker audiences?

There are many translated Persian/Farsi poems in English like The Rubaiyat, by Omar Khayyam, the famous Iranian poet, philosopher, and mathematician, translated by Edward FitzGerald. Unfortunately these kinds of translations were shallow and…
Persian Cat
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Are there situations where using an anastrophe is ill-advised?

I wrote a (unrhymed) couplet, because I couldn't find a good enough example: She ran the comb through her hair ebony As the night fell upon the land of light. Is there a situation where reversing the natural word order is ill-advised or…
puffofsmoke
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A rhyming dictionary worth bookmarking online or purchasing?

Has anyone come across any really good rhyming dictionaries? If so, what makes it worth having/bookmarking? (eg. completeness/ease of use/absence of really sketchy suggestions)
mootinator
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Making science for toddlers easy to remember

I have been intending to create a book for toddlers with basic scientific notions in it. Most books for this target readership that I have seen present whatever content in the form of a story, quite often with fictional characters. I was intending…
NofP
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How can I add more depth to my poem?

I used to write poems. I was in 4th grade, so I just wrote for fun. They didn't have any figurative language or symbols. My only goal was to make them rhyme. Here is an example of one of mine: The topic was risky The judge wasn’t blank, but…
Marvin
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What's the indent rule of poetry?

I've seen people indent their poems like below: Writing on wall It was just plane writing on wall I must have taken it a serious call She was on and off repeating same thing There was hidden message through something There may be long wait …
xzhu
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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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