Verse

“I think writing verse is a great training for a writer. It teaches you to make your points and get your stuff clear, which is the great thing.”

—P.G. Wodehouse (quoted in The 90 top secrets of best-selling writers at Writers' Digest)  

Who doesn’t love P.G. Wodehouse? He is an acknowledged master of prose, so (as a poet) I was gratified to read the above. Of course, some of us regard verse as an end in itself, rather than merely a means to better prose. Nevertheless, anything that gives people a greater appreciation of it is good in my book!

Several WordsFlow participants say they don’t like, don’t understand, and/or don’t write poetry. But when someone raised the question last week, ‘Who has ever written a poem?’ it transpired that nearly everyone in the group had. I tend to think poetry is a natural form of human expression, as people who are institutionalised, e.g. in prisons or long-term hospitalisation, often turn to it as an outlet for their feelings.

A couple of the WordsFlow people, after playing with verse for some years — both free verse and, in one case, song lyrics — have become interested in learning more of the craft. Poetry, as we know, is an art form. It’s good to support one’s artistic expression with an understanding of the craft. It comes with practice, but we can also benefit from the work our predecessors put in, the things which they found to work. Musicians play scales and learn to read music; painters study things like line and perspective; and poets learn prosody, the techniques of versification. 

We can try various poetic forms, from haiku to sonnet and a wide variety in between. We can look at rhyme, metre, and syllabics, which are associated with formal verse. We can explore such devices as metaphor, alliteration, or enjambment, which may apply to both formal and free verse.

If you Google 'poetic forms', you can find many comprehensive lists. I like the list at Shadow Poetry. I also find the weekly prompts and challenges at the online community dVerse very useful, as some are focused on poetics, including particular verse forms. As well as the opportunity to try things for oneself, one can see what others do with them. The community includes some very fine poets who consistently post excellent work. This is far from an exhaustive list, but my top favourites include Samuel Peralta, Claudia Schoenfeld, Jenne' R. Andrews ...  and quite a few more. Go see for yourself!