Most people like to dabble in poetry when they are in love, as it is a creative way to express oneself and one’s feelings toward another. Fortunately, anyone can learn how to write a meaningful, unique love poem. As your goal is to write a poem that reflects the sincerity of your emotions, it is important to take the time to write out your ideas, compose your poem and revise, which you will very likely do more than once, as the recipient of your poem will notice the amount of effort you put into your love poem. Here are a few tips and guidelines about how to write a poem your loved one will truly enjoy and treasure.
Keep It Simple
When people think of love poetry, flowery, eloquent lines of comparisons, long words, perfect rhythm and unexpected rhymes often come to mind, though this is not always the case. Sometimes, too much effort, too many metaphors and one too many romantic clichés will make a poem seem insincere, superficial and thrown together. As it is likely safe to assume that you want your poem to seem as sincere as you are in writing it and as emotionally relevant as you feel like it is, work to keep things simple and uncluttered.
In many cases, people try to express too much with too few lines of poetry and the poem becomes too jumbled, with too much information to absorb. In order to avoid too much of everything, keep your poem’s subject focused on one or two topics. What do you want to include in your poem? Do you want to focus on your loved one’s personality, appearance or talents? Maybe you will, instead, choose to focus be on the evolution of your relationship with them which means focusing on when you met, when you fell in love and possibly your plans for the future?
Once you know what you want to write about, write a quick rough draft or list. Keep your draft or list handy as it will help you stay focused and organized; it will also prevent you from writing an overly complicated poem and you will spend less time on revisions.
Use Poetic Tools
To make your poem fun to read and enjoyable to hear, try using a few poetics tools or devices as these will help you convey your ideas better and give your poem a musical quality while increasing its readability.
Use rhythm to give your poem the traditional musical lilt, keeping in mind that there are many different meters and rhythms you can follow. If you want to use some specific rhythm patterns, research different types like iambic pentameter and iambic tetrameter. However, one easy, basic way to keep a rhythm is to keep track of the number of syllables per line. As a starting point, try writing ten-syllable lines.
Rhyme is another poetic device. Most poems that employ rhyme alternate the lines with the last words rhyming. For example, the last word of your first and third lines will rhyme, as will the last words of your second and fourth lines and so on. As you’re choosing rhyming words, try to choose words that seem natural, like “kiss” and “bliss”, as opposed to forced or stretched to work. It’s important to note that a great love poem doesn’t need to follow any rhyme scheme or rhythm; many great love poems don’t employ either device.
Revise, Revise, Revise
Once you’ve composed your poem, chances are high that your poem will need some revisions. Very few writers, the greatest poets among them, deliver perfect work from a rough draft.
Once you have it written, read your poem aloud and listen for any inconsistencies and awkward transitions in your poem. You’ll be surprised how often words look really great on paper but sound wrong. You may want to get a friend who can be an honest critic to help you listen to the wording and rhythm of your poem.
Writing poetry takes time and effort, however that is what makes giving love poetry to someone such a romantic gesture. With a little creativity, time and effort, you will give your sweetheart a Valentine’s Day, birthday or anniversary gift they will treasure forever.
