Song/Poem Structure

pignotts

Hello, I am new to this part of the forum I have been writing just recently.
I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction as to the different structures to use/when to use what etc... Or even if there is any structure to be follow?!? Such as syllables per line, rhyming pattern etc...

Thank you

FinsburyParkCarrots

There are many who like their work as structureless as possible, discounting thousands of years of tradition, but I would advise that if you're looking for advice on poetry, then start here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry#Poetry_and_form

FinsburyParkCarrots

But I should add, having a theme to write about often comes before figuring out how best to articulate it.

pignotts

Thank you for the info!

ISN

that's a link I might read, thx fins....

jus remember that John Donne writing the following peom now might have added an 'equals'.....I put it in for teh intranet age.....

John Donne
Anne Donne
= undone

pearlmutt

my favorite bit of advice on poetry is this:

"a poem should not mean, but be"

I think Archibald MacLeash said it in Ars Poetica, I could be wrong about that and I could be misquoting.

But when I read it I was like yep, that's it.

ISN

it's not my favourite occupation.....but like fins said.... a peom should mean b4 it is (or be's)....I thought you were an ingenué, but you seem to know a bit.....a peom should come from teh heart, adn mean to express itself....or from the brain, and mean to express a thought or idea.....after it finds its voice, it can be......a peom should mean, or else it means nothing (it can be as much as it wants, if it doesn't mean.....then it isn't)......we all connect to things.....and, Lord knows, I connect to a lot less than you guys.....but the muses infect/infiltrate us when we write and meaning comes b4 form.....I hope I have started a meaningful....(hheheheheheheh) discussion.....

pearlmutt

"a peom should mean, or else it means nothing"

William Carlos Williams: ( A name which is a poem unto itself)

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

pearlmutt

"I have started a meaningful....(hheheheheheheh) discussion"

Nice!

There was a group of poets who came around and kick started the whole focus on imagery. Archibald, Amy someone, I can't remember the last name, (someone must know), William Carlos Williams -- he wrote one that was a description of a wheelbarrow, bright red -- I can still see that thing in my mind and it's been years since I read the poem.

I'm a junkie, though. I really have no idea what a good poem is until I read it.

FinsburyParkCarrots

Yep, they were the imagists. But they were still pretty skilled for all their talk of freedom. They were very selective in their images and how they described them.

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Alumverse/imagism-def.html

ukn0urright

just put what comes to mind and whatever feels right

pearlmutt

Amy Lowell!

Gracious Fins