Writing with meter

[Daeus]

Calling all poets, semi-poets, or anyone able to help me out here.

I have trouble writing in meter, or at least I think I do. I’m not sure. That’s the problem, I don’t know. I know what meter is, but I just have a hard time working with it. I will try to write in a certain meter, but then start to suspect I am unconsciencly (I’m getting a red line like that isn’t a word, but oh well. I like it.) changing the accent of the words in my mind to fit with the desired meter. At the same time, I will give up on meter and write a poem solely built on other poetical techniques, then start wondering if I am actually writing in meter. I will discard perfectly good words for similar ones because they “flow” better. I suspect I am writing in meter, but I have no way of knowing because whenever I read my poem, I get that nudge that I am changing the accent to force a meter pattern that doesn’t exist.

Does anyone have any idea how I can break out of this cycle? I’d really like to write in meter, or at least know when I am actually doing it.

Here’s a thanks in advance.

Daeus

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[Hannah C]

I’m not sure this helps but here’s a link that explains writing in meter pretty good.
http://www.creative-writing-now.com/poetry-meter.html

I like to write poetry too but I can’t say I’ve actually set out to write I meter. It seems incredibly difficult and I applaud you for doing so. 🙂

HC

[Daeus]

And we’re back with me asking for just a little more help. Actually, I think I might need less help then I did before. You see, about an hour ago, we had a fairly dramatic storm (for Ohio) and I decided it was time to freshen my poetry skills. I pulled out a piece of paper and wrote this short little poem.

Makes the haughty quake
Earth begins to shake
Storm cloud rifts the night
Flash and gone the lights
Cavalry of storm
Volley down the hail
Frightened children wail.

I tried to write this in iambic meter (or I think that’s what you call it). Here is the format I think I wrote:
-=stressed .=unstressed
-.-.-
-.-.-
-.-.-
-.-.-
-.-.-
-.-.-
-.-.-

I might have strayed from this exact pattern in one or two places, but I am fairly confident that I followed the pattern almost completely. If I did, that would be great, since I wrote this poem in probably 3-4 minutes so I didn’t have to think very hard about it. That is just what I wan’t. I can follow almost any other pattern without much difficulty, but meter has always been a pain to me. I am hoping I have conquered it, but if you are reading this and thinking, “This guy can’t tell meter from a yard stick” don’t fail to let me know. I wan’t to know. I wan’t to conquer this thing if I have to work at it for years.

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[Kate Flournoy]

You must have got the same storm we are getting now! What a small world it is…
Um… I won’t be much help, because I write poetry almost exclusively by ear, but I read your poem and to my highly sensitive ears it sounds very rhythmic and controlled, yet it flows well. The only thing I would suggest would be instead of ‘Storm cloud rifts the night’ to write ‘Storm clouds rift the night’. It flows better that way, to my thinking. Only maybe ‘rift’ as a singular doesn’t work grammatically… I don’t know, rive? But I probably have no idea what I’m talking about, so feel free to ignore me… 😛

By the way, have you ever read any of Tolkien’s poetry? He does a lot of different rhythms and styles, following a lot of different moods and thoughts and weaving it all into the most beautiful pieces of poetry I have ever read. Here is one of my favorite of this poems, just for a sample, though he by no means sticks to this model:

‘I sit beside the fire and think
of all that I have seen,
of meadow-flowers and butterflies
in summers that have been;

Of yellow leaves and gossamer
in autumns that there were,
with morning mist and silver sun
and wind upon my hair.

I sit beside the fire and think
of how the world will be
when winter comes without a spring
that I shall ever see.

For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood in every spring
there is a different green.

I sit beside the fire and think
of people long ago,
and people who will see a world
that I shall never know.

But all the while I sit and think
of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.’

Isn’t that beautiful? And it’s probably one of the shortest poems he ever wrote, too! 😛

INFP. kateeverythingwriting.wordpress.com

[Daeus]

Thanks. I think I will make that change. I have read the hobbit. I believe that had some poetry in it. Otherwise, I am unfamiliar with Tolkien. That is a very nice work though.

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[Kate Flournoy]

Oh good! I’m glad I was able to be of assistance.
Yes, ‘The Hobbit’ did have poetry in it, though more of it was on the comic side than is common with Tolkien. But then, the Hobbit was a bedtime story (he wrote it for his children) and it was on the whole lighter and more comical than the Lord of the Rings. The Lord of the Rings is a very grown-up trilogy that still manages to terrify even me. And Tolkien is the only poet whose ‘un-rhyming’ poetry I love. 😛

INFP. kateeverythingwriting.wordpress.com

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