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Romantic Poetry - What
NOT To Do
By Holly Bliss
What
NOT to do AKA bad love poetry.
I
love your lovely fingers,
My
love, as they dive through
Your
silky, sunshine hair.
I
love your deep blue
Eyes,
I gotta tell ya
They're
quite a pair.
Your
lips are liquid
Lava
and at them
I
always stare.
Just
wanted to let
You
know that in you,
I'll
always care.
Unless
the plan is for you and your beloved
to be the only eyes on the planet to read your love poetry, you
need to avoid some common problems that can be found in romantic
poetry.
1)
Like clowns in a tiny car - Cram it in until it bursts.
Don't try to
shove every feeling you've ever had into one piece. Find a single
metaphor or element and breathe life into it. Let the reader feel
the moment, not a lifetime.
2)
Clichés - Deeper than any ocean...
Avoid clichés.
Find unique ways of saying how deep your love is.
3)
Mushy Metaphors
You're
the hot fudge on my sundae... The strings on my angels harp.
Unless you're
going for giggles, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, or country
music lyrics (sorry, Dad), see number one and stick to a few well
thought out metaphors. The shorter the poem,
the fewer metaphors.
Feel free to
turn a single metaphor into an extended metaphor (poetry thread)
but avoid things like the example above.
4)
Forced Rhyme
Your
lips are liquid
Lava
and at them
I
always stare.
Just
wanted to let
You
know that in you,
I'll
always care.
Forced rhyme
at its best, um, worst. It's better to have no rhyme scheme than
to force one out and hammer it into your poem like a misplaced
puzzle piece.
Rhyme should
sound natural, almost as if it isn't there. Don't try to switch
words around to make them fit into a rhyme scheme. Also, I find
slant rhyme (can/hands) works better than perfect rhyme (can/plan).
5) Finally, did I mention "I love you"?
I
love your lovely fingers,
My
love, as they dive through
Your
silky, sunshine hair.
Ack!
Enough already. A way to get out of
this habit is to try to write love poetry without using the word
love at all. It goes
back to the "show don't tell"
rule of literature which can be applied to all forms of writing.
About the author: © 2006 H. Bliss.
This document may be redistributed in its unedited form on the
condition all copyright references are kept intact along with
hyperlinked URLs.
About the Author: Using
writing as paint on the canvas of her life, Holly Bliss is a newslettereditor
and author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for
Creative Writers.
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