poetry for dummies

[Anonymous No.2571216]

Hello there /lit/

I recently found out that I am a big fan of poetry. I reread Faust after I had to read it in school a good 10 or more years ago (I am German btw.). Schiller's The Robbers and reading Eugene Onegin right now and greatly enjoy it.

On the other hand I am not a big fan of normal poems. It seems I am into the longer works of poetry and will soon check out the epics.

But well here is the thing, I would love to write poetry myself. Everytime I read works of poetry I start to rhym simple stories in my head myself. So were do I start with this? I thought about starting to read some stuff on wikipedia about it and inform myself about rhyming schemes and forms etc.

Can you recommand me something else I should know before starting with this?

[Anonymous No.2571278]

bump

[Anonymous No.2571284]

dat gustave dore

[Anonymous No.2571294]

>>2571284
lol'd

this is why i love /lit/

[Anonymous No.2571303]

Just know, OP, that almost no one writes poetry like that anymore. I know there's a couple people, if anyone else can name them. Writing in that high speech is considered pretentious and undeserving. Any poetry teacher you talk to now will encourage simplicity and writing in a natural voice. Just keep reading and write some stuff down. Post it here and hope you find someone helpful.

[Anonymous No.2571329]

>>2571303

Well I am not trying to itimitate Goethe or Schiller, or even Pushkin.
I just want to write my own stuff, but aren't there rules about poetry? Like I said different forms and rhyming schemes or the number of syllable a single line should have to make everything sound harmonic. This kind of stuff.

[Anonymous No.2571346]

>>2571303
I never really understood this line of thinking. I mean, yeah, obviously modern poets don't write the same way as the classics, but they often imitate and make references to them in their own works. Besides, I don't think a poet should be striving to fit into the modern mold any more than he should be fitting into previous ones.

[Anonymous No.2571347]

>>2571329
The best way to get to know this is through reading and practice.

[Anonymous No.2571377]

>>2571329
Kind of. There are different meters, rhymes, and forms. I honestly can't go over all of them here, so I'll just give an easy example. A more difficult form is the villanelle. Dylan Thomas' 'Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night' is an example of one.

Here you can see what the rules of the form are:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villanelle

And here's Thomas' poem:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_not_go_gentle_into_that_good_night

There you can see how he incorporrates the rhyme scheme, the repeated lines, the division of the stanzas, and pick up on the meter. For me, meter is the most difficult part. Figuring out accented and unaccented is just tough for me.

But, most modern poetry isn't so strict. There's rarely any rhyme (it's considered trite) and uses modern language. The separation of stanzas and the length of lines is totally up to you. I typically just try to make my lines similar lengths.

[Anonymous No.2571400]

>>2571346
You are right, it just sounded to me like OP wanted emulate Shakespeare and Donne. In fact, I'd like to read an epic poem written about modern themes. But, a poet isn't going to understand the direction of poetry without having an understanding of the modern style. You can't jump from Donne to post-Collins without being some sort of genius. There is no actual artistic vacuum where the artist can preserve themselves from outside influence and project only their true self-expression.

[Anonymous No.2571421]

>>2571347

Well that is what I plan on doing.

>>2571377

Thanks, this will be very helpful!
Ah ok, so basically I should just try to make my lines the same lenght and take a look at the division of the stanzas.
So there is basically no rhyme in modern poetry? I think that is one of the things I adored the most in the works I read. It was kinda impressiv to me, that those people could write stories like Faust completely in rhymes.

>>2571400

So what you are telling me is, that if I want to write a modern epic, I need a complete understanding of the directions and developements in poetry. Or basically you want to tell me I should go and read all major works of poetry from Shakespear and Donne until nowdays?

[Anonymous No.2571434]

>>2571421
>So there is basically no rhyme in modern poetry?
There often is, but it's not as straightforward as in older works. Rhyming can give a sense of structure, as well as resolution, so it's often used to help divide up and end poems.

[Anonymous No.2571448]

>>2571303

I hate this kind of thinking. Fuck conventions, modern poetry is shit, Epic poem is best poem. English language literature has gone nowhere but downhill since Milton.

[Anonymous No.2571452]

http://www.trobar.org/prosody/

[Anonymous No.2571615]

>>2571377
>There's rarely any rhyme (it's considered trite)
Number one thing I hate about modern poetry.

[Anonymous No.2572177]

>>2571216
Dr. Gottfried Benn is an excellent poet.

[Anonymous No.2572187]

>>2571615
>>2571434

Yeah, Eliot and Pound really did a number on modern poetry.

[Anonymous No.2572197]

>>2571421
>so basically I should just try to make my lines the same lenght and take a look at the division of the stanzas.

Just don't take that to heart. Rules and conventions should always be broken and expanded. The same length thing is just for aesthetics. Also, ending a line with a particular;y powerful word that calls for attention but just flows into the next is powerful.

Novels and stories and giant, wordy houses filled with ides stacked on top of each other and the author is just trying to move around stacks so the reader can make his way through.

A poem is a bonsai tree. You carefully cultivate it paying attention to every detail. You snip and you add and you rewrite until it's perfect. And when it's perfect, you change it to make it better.

Welcome to poetry, OP.

[Anonymous No.2572218]

I recently picked up a copy of "British Poetry Since the 16th Century" by John Garrett at a used book sale. I havent't finished it yet but I like it. It's at a really introductory level, it goes through various aspects of poetry like theme, diction, rhyme and rithym, and then moves from shakespeare onwards.