At least half, if not more, of all of the poems ever written could probably be considered "sad." Elegiacism, melancholy, ennui, mourning, loss, nostalgia, unrequited love, blocked ambitions, political disillusionment, dishonor, and death are some of the subjects commonly associated with sadness in poetry, but the list is comet-tail long.
Some poets, like Plath, or Poe, or Baudelaire are so well known for grappling with sadness that they are most often conceptualized wearing black, looking crestfallen, and writing by candlelight in a cobwebby room. The question is: is the pallor that punctuates poetry as obvious and complete as it seems, or is there room for new shades of sadness? The fragility and melancholic music of Tennyson's "Tears Idle Tears" may be the correct match for our autumnal empire, but our phone-locked minds no longer respond to such delicacies. The brooding, unrelenting mourning of "The Raven" may have been our cultural heart beat all along, but most of us are inured to such Gothic brooding and would feel quite cozy under Pallas's raven-topped bust. We may be living in the "the worst of times" or "the best of times" but it seems to me that our age invites new colors of sadness and mourning. We've all colored with the black crayon so much it's just a stub now. Maybe it's time to find new colors of sadness by mixing new pigments. And I'll start talking about how I think we can do that in the next post! Until then, if you'd like some feedback or polishing for your poems, click one of the buttons below. AND don't forget to check out my 7 Secrets of Poetry guide, available now. Click the button below.
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Characters can make or break a poem. Just like a novelist or short story writer, the poet needs characters. The poet need not have character personally, as is often the case, but the poem itself demands living personages.
And just as in prose, it's often the minor characters that do all the heavy lifting. You can't have Hamlet without Ophelia. You can't even have Hamlet without Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. And most importantly, you need Horatio. He is the frame for the whole play, right down to Hamlet's demise. For those of you who don't know your Shakespeare -- you can't have Frodo without Sam. That said, what are some good ways to use minor characters in your poems? Poe has a great one in "The Raven" and it's not even the bird. It's Lenore. She's as mysterious Mona Lisa's smile. Plath has an entire cast of wonderful minor characters in "Lady Lazarus" -- ranging from adoring fans to probing psychiatrists. Robert Pinksy's poem, "The Questions," is full of mini-portraits and they give the poem life and blood and fever. In fact, so many poets, from Sappho to Bukowski, rely on the presence of passing faces and personalities to give their poems depth and life, that portraiture and the principles of dramatic stage-movement should be learned by every aspiring poet. They key is to let people move through your poems, as organically as possible. Try not to fixate on your subjective response to them, but capture their essence as it relates to the poem in question. Don't give us too much information, but paint colorful personalities and bodies with a few well-placed brushstrokes. Here's something you can do just for fun that will really show you what I mean. Write a poem with no people in it. Focus on the setting. Now write a poem with he same setting, but add at least two people. If your second poem is shorter than the first, there's a slight chance you may be staying in too much. It's perfectly fine to write a poem without people in it, but doing so makes a statement in itself and doing so a lot will make your poems seem abstract whether you want them to or not. Using Big Famous people in your poems is like using big shiny words. If you drop a Big Name, there should be a good reason. Drop it and move on -- or just go ahead and write the poem about the famous person. Last little hint: the more you use people in your poems, the more dimension you give yourself as an observer. This will make your vertical pronouns pop! @BlackstonDan If you want to read more tips on how to write good poetry, check out my 7 Secrets of Poetry guide by clicking the button below. OR if you'd like some direct feedback, polishing, or editing for your poems, click one of the buttons below or email me at [email protected] |