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101 Poetry Prompts & Ideas for Writing Poems

Not sure what to write a poem about? Here’s 101 poetry prompts to get you started!

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These poetry prompts are designed to help you keep a creative writing practice. If you’re staring at a blank page and the words aren’t flowing, the creative writing prompts for poems can be a great way to get started!

New for 2023! Due to popular demand, I created a printable, ad-free version of these poetry prompts you can download to use at home or even in the classroom! Get them at our Etsy Shop .

Even if poetry isn’t your thing, you could always use these things to inspire other writing projects. Essays, journal entries, short stories, and flash fiction are just a few examples of ways this list can be used.

You may even find this list of creative poetry writing prompts helpful as an exercise to build your skills in descriptive writing and using metaphors!

Let’s get onto the list, shall we?

Here are 101 Poetry Prompts for Creative Writing

Most of these creative writing ideas are simple and open-ended. This allows you total creative freedom to write from these poetry prompts in your own unique style, tone, and voice.

If one poetry idea doesn’t appeal to you, challenge yourself to find parallels between the prompt and things that you do enjoy writing about!

1.The Untouchable : Something that will always be out of reach

2. 7 Days, 7 Lines : Write a poem where each line/sentence is about each day of last week

3. Grandma’s Kitchen : Focus on a single memory, or describe what you might imagine the typical grandmother’s kitchen to be like

4. Taste the Rainbow : What does your favorite color taste like?

5. Misfits: How it feels when you don’t belong in a group of others.

6. Stranger Conversations : Start the first line of your poem with a word or phrase from a recent passing conversation between you and someone you don’t know.

7. On the Field : Write from the perspective of a sports ball {Baseball, Soccer, Football, Basketball, Lacrosse, etc.} – think about what the sports ball might feel, see, hear, think, and experience with this poetry idea!

8. Street Signs: Take note of the words on signs and street names you pass while driving, walking, or riding the bus. Write a poem starting with one of these words you notice.

9. Cold water: What feelings do you associate with cold water? Maybe it’s a refreshing cold glass of water on a hot day, or maybe you imagine the feelings associated with being plunged into the icy river in the winter.

10. Ghostwriter: Imagine an invisible ghost picks up a pen and starts writing to you.

11. Lessons From Math Class: Write about a math concept, such as “you cannot divide by zero” or never-ending irrational numbers.

12. Instagram Wall: Open up either your own Instagram account or one of a friend/celebrity and write poetry based on the first picture you see.

13. Radio: Tune in to a radio station you don’t normally listen to, and write a poem inspired by the the first song or message you hear.

14. How To : Write a poem on how to do something mundane most people take for granted, such as how to tie your shoes, how to turn on a lamp, how to pour a cup of coffee.

15. Under 25 Words : Challenge yourself to write a poem that is no more than 25 words long.

16. Out of Order: Write about your feelings when there is an out of order sign on a vending machine.

17. Home Planet: Imagine you are from another planet, stuck on earth and longing for home.

18. Uncertainty : Think about a time in your life when you couldn’t make a decision, and write based on this.

19. Complete : Be inspired by a project or task be completed – whether it’s crossing something off the never-ending to-do list, or a project you have worked on for a long time.

20. Compare and Contrast Personality : What are some key differences and similarities between two people you know?

21. Goodbyes : Write about a time in your life you said goodbye to someone – this could be as simple as ending a mundane phone conversation, or harder goodbyes to close friends, family members, or former partners.

22. Imagine Weather Indoors : Perhaps a thunderstorm in the attic? A tornado in the kitchen?

23. Would You Rather? Write about something you don’t want to do, and what you would rather do instead.

24. Sound of Silence : Take some inspiration from the classic Simon & Garfunkel song and describe what silence sounds like.

25. Numbness : What’s it like to feel nothing at all?

26. Fabric Textures : Use different fiber textures, such as wool, silk, and cotton as a poetry writing prompt.

27. Anticipation : Write about the feelings you experience or things you notice while waiting for something.

28. Poison: Describe something toxic and its effects on a person.

29. Circus Performers: Write your poetry inspired by a circus performer – a trapeze artist, the clowns, the ringmaster, the animal trainers, etc.

30. Riding on the Bus : Write a poem based on a time you’ve traveled by bus – whether a school bus, around town, or a long distance trip to visit a certain destination.

31. Time Freeze : Imagine wherever you are right now that the clock stops and all the people in the world are frozen in place. What are they doing?

32. The Spice of Life : Choose a spice from your kitchen cabinet, and relate its flavor to an event that has happened recently in your daily life.

33. Parallel Universe : Imagine you, but in a completely different life based on making a different decision that impacted everything else.

34. Mad Scientist : Create a piece based on a science experiment going terribly, terribly wrong.

35. People You Have Known : Make each line about different people you have met but lost contact with over the years. These could be old friends, passed on family, etc.

36. Last Words : Use the last sentence from the nearest book as the inspiration for the first line of your poem.

37. Fix This : Think about something you own that is broken, and write about possible ways to fix it. Duct tape? A hammer and nails?

38. Suspicion : Pretend you are a detective and you have to narrow down the suspects.

39. Political News : Many famous poets found inspiration from the current politics in their time. Open up a newspaper or news website, and create inspired by the first news article you find.

40. The Letter D : Make a list of 5 words that start with all with the same letter, and then use these items throughout the lines of your verse. {This can be any letter, but for example sake: Daisy, Dishes, Desk, Darkness, Doubt}

41. Quite the Collection : Go to a museum, or look at museum galleries online. Draw your inspiration from collections of objects and artifacts from your favorite display. Examples: Pre-historic days, Egyptians, Art Galleries, etc.

42. Standing in Line : Think of a time you had to stand in line for something. Maybe you were waiting in a check-out line at the store, or you had to stand in line to enter a concert or event.

43. Junk Mail Prose: Take some inspiration from your latest junk mail. Maybe it’s a grocery store flyer announcing a sale on grapes, or an offer for a credit card.

44. Recipe : Write your poem in the form of a recipe. This can be for something tangible, such as a cake, or it can be a more abstract concept such as love or happiness. List ingredients and directions for mixing and tips for cooking up your concept to perfection.

45. Do you like sweaters? Some people love their coziness, others find them scratchy and too hot. Use your feelings about sweaters in a poem.

46. After Party : What is it like after all party guests go home?

47. Overgrown : Use Little Shop of Horrors for inspiration, or let your imagination run wild on what might happen if a plant or flower came to life or started spreading rapidly to take over the world.

48. Interference: Write a poem that is about someone or something coming in between you and your goals.

49. On Shaky Ground: Use an earthquake reference or metaphor in your poem.

50. Trust Issues : Can you trust someone you have doubted in the past?

51. Locked in a Jar: Imagine you are a tiny person, who has been captured and put into a jar for display or science.

52. Weirder Than Fiction: Think of the most unbelievable moment in your life, and write a poem about the experience.

53. Fast Food: Write a poem about fast food restaurants and experiences.

54. Unemployed: Write a poem about quitting or being fired from a job you depended on.

55. Boxes: What kinds of family secrets or stories might be hiding in that untouched box in the attic?

56. No One Understands : Write about what it feels like when no one understands or agrees with your opinion.

57. Criminal Minds : Write a poem from the perspective of a high-profile criminal who is always on the run from law enforcement.

58. Marathon Runner : Write a poem about what training you might be doing to accomplish a difficult challenge in your life.

59. Trapped : Write about an experience that made you feel trapped.

60. Passing the Church : Write a poem about noticing something interesting while passing by a church near your home.

61. Backseat Driver: Write about what it’s like to be doing something in your life and constantly being criticized while trying to move ahead.

62. Luster: Create a descriptive poem about something that has a soft glow or sheen to it.

63. Clipboard: Write a poem about someone who is all business like and set in their ways of following a system.

64. Doctor: Write a poem about receiving advice from a doctor.

65. First Car : Write an ode to your first car

66. Life Didn’t Go As a Planned : Write about a recent or memorable experience when nothing went according to plan.

67. Architect : Imagine you are hired to design a building for a humanitarian cause you are passionate about.

68. The Crazy Cat Hoarder : Write about someone who owns far too many cats.

69. Queen : Write a poem from the perspective of a queen.

70. Movie Character : Think of a recent movie you watched, and create a poem about one character specifically, or an interaction between two characters that was memorable.

71. Potential Energy : Write about an experience where you had a lot of potential for success, but failed.

72. Moonlight : Write about an experience in the moonlight.

73. Perfection : Write about trying to always keep everything perfect.

74. You Are Wrong : Write a poem where you tell someone they are wrong and why.

75. Sarcasm : Write a poem using sarcasm as a form of illustrating your point.

76. Don’t Cry : Write a poem about how not to cry when it’s hard to hold back the tears.

77. Listen Up: Write a poem telling someone they are better than they think they are.

78. Flipside : Find the good in something terrible.

79. Maybe They Had a Reason : Write a poem about someone doing something you don’t understand, and try to explain what reasons they might have had.

80. How to Drive : Write a poem that explains how to drive to a teenager.

81. Up & Down the Steps: Write a poem that includes the motion of going up or down a staircase

82. Basket Case: Has there ever been a time when you thought you might lose your mind? Jot your feelings and thoughts down in verse form.

83. Lucky Guess: Many times in our life we have to make a good guess for what is the best decision. Use this poetry idea to write about feelings related to guessing something right – or wrong.

84. Dear Reader: What audience enjoys reading the type of poetry you like to write? Craft a note to your potential audience that addresses their biggest fears, hopes, and dreams.

85. All or Nothing : Share your thoughts on absolutist thinking: when one’s beliefs are so set in stone there are no exceptions.

86. Ladders in the Sky : Imagine there are ladders that take you up to the clouds. What could be up there? What feelings do you have about climbing the ladders, or is their a mystery as to how they got there in the first place?

87. Always On My Mind: Compose a poem about what it’s like to always be thinking about someone or something.

88. Paranoia : What would it be like if you felt like someone was watching you but no one believed you?

89. Liar, Liar: How would you react to someone who lied to you?

90. Secret Word: What’s the magic word to unlock someone’s access to something?

91. For What It’s Worth: Use a valuable object in your home as inspiration as a poetry prompt idea.

92. Coming Home to Secrets: Imagine a person who puts on a good act to cover up a secret they deal with at home.

93. Productivity: Talk about your greatest struggles with time management and organization.

94. Defying Gravity: Use words that relate to being weightless and floating.

95. Signs of the Times : How has a place you are familiar with changed over the past 10 years?

96. Sleepless Nights : What ideas and feelings keep you up at night? What’s it like when you have to wake up in the morning on a night you can’t sleep?

97. You Can’t Fire Me, I Quit : Use one of the worst job related memories you can think of as a creative writing prompt.

98. By George : You can choose any name, but think of 3-5 notable figures or celebrities who share a common first name, and combine their personalities and physical characteristics into one piece of poetry. For example: George Washington, George Clooney, George Harrison.

99. Shelter : Write a poem about a time you were thankful for shelter from a storm.

100. Cafeteria : Create a poem inspired by the people who might be eating lunch in a cafeteria at school or at a hospital.

101. Dusty Musical Instruments : Base your poem around the plight of a musician who hasn’t picked up the guitar or touched a piano in years.

Love these prompts? The printable, ad-free version of these poetry prompts can be used offline or in the classroom! Get them at our Etsy Shop .

There are unlimited possibilities for ways you can use these poem ideas to write poetry. Using a list like this can greatly help you with getting into the habit of writing daily – even when you don’t feel inspired to write.

While not every poem you write will be an award-winning masterpiece, using these poem starters as a regular exercise can help you better your craft as a writer.

I hope you enjoy these poetry prompts – and if you write anything you’d like to share inspired by these creative poetry writing prompts, let us know in the comments below – we love to see how others use writing ideas to create their own work!

And of course, don’t forget to get the ad-free poetry prompt cards printable version if you’d like to use these prompts offline, in the classroom or with your small group!

Chelle Stein wrote her first embarrassingly bad novel at the age of 14 and hasn't stopped writing since. As the founder of ThinkWritten, she enjoys encouraging writers and creatives of all types.

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Poetry Explained

How to Write a Poetry Essay (Complete Guide)

Unlock success in poetry essays with our comprehensive guide. Uncover the process to help aid understanding of how best to create a poetry essay.

While many of us read poetry for pleasure, it is undeniable that many poetry readers do so in the knowledge that they will be assessed on the text they are reading, either in an exam, for homework, or for a piece of coursework. This is clearly a daunting task for many, and lots of students don’t even know where to begin. We’re here to help! This guide will take you through all the necessary steps so that you can plan and write great poetry essays every time. If you’re still getting to grips with the different techniques, terms, or some other aspect of poetry, then check out our other available resources at the bottom of this page.

This Guide was Created by Joe Samantaria

Degree in English and Related Literature, and a Masters in Irish Literature

Upon completion of his degrees, Joe is an English tutor and counts W.B. Yeats , Emily Brontë , and Federico Garcia Lorca among his favorite poets. He has helped tutor hundreds of students with poetry and aims to do the same for readers and Poetry + users on Poem Analysis.

How to Write a Poetry Essay

1 Before You Start…
2 Introductions
3 Main Paragraphs
4 Conclusions
6 Other Resources

Before You Start…

Before we begin, we must address the fact that all poetry essays are different from one another on account of different academic levels, whether or not the essay pertains to one poem or multiple, and the intended length of the essay. That is before we even contend with the countless variations and distinctions between individual poems. Thus, it is impossible to produce a single, one-size-fits-all template for writing great essays on poetry because the criteria for such an essay are not universal. This guide is, therefore, designed to help you go about writing a simple essay on a single poem, which comes to roughly 1000-1200 words in length. We have designed it this way to mirror the requirements of as many students around the world as possible. It is our intention to write another guide on how to write a comparative poetry essay at a later date. Finally, we would like to stress the fact that this guide is exactly that: a guide. It is not a set of restrictive rules but rather a means of helping you get to grips with writing poetry essays. Think of it more like a recipe that, once practiced a few times, can be modified and adapted as you see fit.

The first and most obvious starting point is the poem itself and there are some important things to do at this stage before you even begin contemplating writing your essay. Naturally, these things will depend on the nature of the essay you are required to write.

Is the poem one you are familiar with?
Do you know anything about the context of the poem or the poet?
How much time do you have to complete the essay?
Do you have access to books or the internet?

These questions matter because they will determine the type, length, and scope of the essay you write. Naturally, an essay written under timed conditions about an unfamiliar poem will look very different from one written about a poem known to you. Likewise, teachers and examiners will expect different things from these essays and will mark them accordingly.

As this article pertains to writing a poverty essay, we’re going to assume you have a grasp of the basics of understanding the poems themselves. There is a plethora of materials available that can help you analyze poetry if you need to, and thousands of analyzed poems are available right here. For the sake of clarity, we advise you to use these tools to help you get to grips with the poem you intend to write about before you ever sit down to actually produce an essay. As we have said, the amount of time spent pondering the poem will depend on the context of the essay. If you are writing a coursework-style question over many weeks, then you should spend hours analyzing the poem and reading extensively about its context. If, however, you are writing an essay in an exam on a poem you have never seen before, you should perhaps take 10-15% of the allotted time analyzing the poem before you start writing.

The Question

Once you have spent enough time analyzing the poem and identifying its key features and themes, you can turn your attention to the question. It is highly unlikely that you will simply be asked to “analyze this poem.” That would be too simple on the one hand and far too broad on the other.

More likely, you will be asked to analyze a particular aspect of the poem, usually pertaining to its message, themes, or meaning. There are numerous ways examiners can express these questions, so we have outlined some common types of questions below.

Explore the poet’s presentation of…
How does the poet present…
Explore the ways the writer portrays their thoughts about…

These are all similar ways of achieving the same result. In each case, the examiner requires that you analyze the devices used by the poet and attempt to tie the effect those devices have to the poet’s broader intentions or meaning.

Some students prefer reading the question before they read the poem, so they can better focus their analytical eye on devices and features that directly relate to the question they are being asked. This approach has its merits, especially for poems that you have not previously seen. However, be wary of focusing too much on a single element of a poem, particularly if it is one you may be asked to write about again in a later exam. It is no good knowing only how a poem links to the theme of revenge if you will later be asked to explore its presentation of time.

Essay plans can help focus students’ attention when they’re under pressure and give them a degree of confidence while they’re writing. In basic terms, a plan needs the following elements:

An overarching answer to the question (this will form the basis of your introduction)
A series of specific, identifiable poetic devices ( metaphors , caesura , juxtaposition , etc) you have found in the poem
Ideas about how these devices link to the poem’s messages or themes.
Some pieces of relevant context (depending on whether you need it for your type of question)

In terms of layout, we do not want to be too prescriptive. Some students prefer to bullet-point their ideas, and others like to separate them by paragraph. If you use the latter approach, you should aim for:

1 Introduction
4-5 Main paragraphs
1 Conclusion

Finally, the length and detail of your plan should be dictated by the nature of the essay you are doing. If you are under exam conditions, you should not spend too much time writing a plan, as you will need that time for the essay itself. Conversely, if you are not under time pressure, you should take your time to really build out your plan and fill in the details.

Introductions

If you have followed all the steps to this point, you should be ready to start writing your essay. All good essays begin with an introduction, so that is where we shall start.

When it comes to introductions, the clue is in the name: this is the place for you to introduce your ideas and answer the question in broad terms. This means that you don’t need to go into too much detail, as you’ll be doing that in the main body of the essay. That means you don’t need quotes, and you’re unlikely to need to quote anything from the poem yet. One thing to remember is that you should mention both the poet’s name and the poem’s title in your introduction. This might seem unnecessary, but it is a good habit to get into, especially if you are writing an essay in which other questions/poems are available to choose from.

As we mentioned earlier, you are unlikely to get a question that simply asks you to analyze a poem in its entirety, with no specific angle. More likely, you’ll be asked to write an essay about a particular thematic element of the poem. Your introduction should reflect this. However, many students fall into the trap of simply regurgitating the question without offering anything more. For example, a question might ask you to explore a poet’s presentation of love, memory, loss, or conflict . You should avoid the temptation to simply hand these terms back in your introduction without expanding upon them. You will get a chance to see this in action below.

Let’s say we were given the following question:

Explore Patrick Kavanagh’s presentation of loss and memory in Memory of My Father

Taking on board the earlier advice, you should hopefully produce an introduction similar to the one written below.

Patrick Kavanagh presents loss as an inescapable fact of existence and subverts the readers’ expectations of memory by implying that memories can cause immense pain, even if they feature loved ones. This essay will argue that Memory of My Father depicts loss to be cyclical and thus emphasizes the difficulties that inevitably occur in the early stages of grief.

As you can see, the introduction is fairly condensed and does not attempt to analyze any specific poetic elements. There will be plenty of time for that as the essay progresses. Similarly, the introduction does not simply repeat the words ‘loss’ and ‘memory’ from the question but expands upon them and offers a glimpse of the kind of interpretation that will follow without providing too much unnecessary detail at this early stage.

Main Paragraphs

Now, we come to the main body of the essay, the quality of which will ultimately determine the strength of our essay. This section should comprise of 4-5 paragraphs, and each of these should analyze an aspect of the poem and then link the effect that aspect creates to the poem’s themes or message. They can also draw upon context when relevant if that is a required component of your particular essay.

There are a few things to consider when writing analytical paragraphs and many different templates for doing so, some of which are listed below.

PEE (Point-Evidence-Explain)
PEA (Point-Evidence-Analysis)
PETAL (Point-Evidence-Technique-Analysis-Link)
IQA (Identify-Quote-Analyze)
PEEL (Point-Evidence-Explain-Link)

Some of these may be familiar to you, and they all have their merits. As you can see, there are all effective variations of the same thing. Some might use different terms or change the order, but it is possible to write great paragraphs using all of them.

One of the most important aspects of writing these kind of paragraphs is selecting the features you will be identifying and analyzing. A full list of poetic features with explanations can be found here. If you have done your plan correctly, you should have already identified a series of poetic devices and begun to think about how they link to the poem’s themes.

It is important to remember that, when analyzing poetry, everything is fair game! You can analyze the language, structure, shape, and punctuation of the poem. Try not to rely too heavily on any single type of paragraph. For instance, if you have written three paragraphs about linguistic features ( similes , hyperbole , alliteration , etc), then try to write your next one about a structural device ( rhyme scheme , enjambment , meter , etc).

Regardless of what structure you are using, you should remember that multiple interpretations are not only acceptable but actively encouraged. Techniques can create effects that link to the poem’s message or themes in both complementary and entirely contrasting ways. All these possibilities should find their way into your essay. You are not writing a legal argument that must be utterly watertight – you are interpreting a subjective piece of art.

It is important to provide evidence for your points in the form of either a direct quotation or, when appropriate, a reference to specific lines or stanzas . For instance, if you are analyzing a strict rhyme scheme, you do not need to quote every rhyming word. Instead, you can simply name the rhyme scheme as, for example, AABB , and then specify whether or not this rhyme scheme is applied consistently throughout the poem or not. When you are quoting a section from the poem, you should endeavor to embed your quotation within your line so that your paragraph flows and can be read without cause for confusion.

When it comes to context, remember to check whether or not your essay question requires it before you begin writing. If you do need to use it, you must remember that it is used to elevate your analysis of the poem, not replace it. Think of context like condiments or spices. When used appropriately, they can enhance the experience of eating a meal, but you would have every right to complain if a restaurant served you a bowl of ketchup in lieu of an actual meal. Moreover, you should remember to only use the contextual information that helps your interpretation rather than simply writing down facts to prove you have memorized them. Examiners will not be impressed that you know the date a particular poet was born or died unless that information relates to the poem itself.

For the sake of ease, let’s return to our earlier question:

Have a look at the example paragraph below, taking note of the ways in which it interprets the linguistic technique in several different ways.

Kavanagh uses a metaphor when describing how the narrator ’s father had “fallen in love with death” in order to capture the narrator’s conflicted attitudes towards his loss. By conflating the ordinarily juxtaposed states of love and death, Kavanagh implies the narrator’s loss has shattered his previously held understanding of the world and left him confused. Similarly, the metaphor could suggest the narrator feels a degree of jealousy, possibly even self-loathing, because their father embraced death willingly rather than remaining with the living. Ultimately, the metaphor’s innate impossibility speaks to the narrator’s desire to rationalize their loss because the reality, that his father simply died, is too painful for him to bear.

As you can see, the paragraph clearly engages with a poetic device and uses an appropriately embedded quotation. The subsequent interpretations are then varied enough to avoid repeating each other, but all clearly link to the theme of loss that was mentioned in the question. Obviously, this is only one analytical paragraph, but a completed essay should contain 4-5. This would allow the writer to analyze enough different devices and link them to both themes mentioned in the question.

Conclusions

By this stage, you should have written the bulk of your essay in the form of your introduction and 4-5 main analytical paragraphs. If you have done those things properly, then the conclusion should largely take care of itself.

The world’s simplest essay plan sounds something like this:

Tell them what you’re going to tell them
Tell them what you’ve told them

This is, naturally, an oversimplification, but it is worth bearing in mind. The conclusion to an essay is not the place to introduce your final, groundbreaking interpretation. Nor is it the place to reveal a hitherto unknown piece of contextual information that shatters any prior critical consensus with regard to the poem you are writing about. If you do either of these things, the examiner will be asking themselves one simple question: why didn’t they write this earlier?

In its most simple form, a conclusion is there, to sum up the points you have made and nothing more.

As with the previous sections, there is a little more to a great conclusion than merely stating the things you have already made. The trick to a great conclusion is to bind those points together to emphasize the essay’s overarching thread or central argument. This is a subtle skill, but mastering it will really help you to finish your essays with a flourish by making your points feel like they are more than the sum of their parts.

Finally, let’s remind ourselves of the hypothetical essay question we’ve been using:

Remember that, just like your introduction, your conclusion should be brief and direct and must not attempt to do more than it needs to.

In conclusion, Kavanagh’s poem utilizes numerous techniques to capture the ways in which loss is both inescapable and a source of enormous pain. Moreover, the poet subverts positive memories by showcasing how they can cause loved ones more pain than comfort in the early stages of grief. Ultimately, the poem demonstrates how malleable memory can be in the face of immense loss due to the way the latter shapes and informs the former.

As you can see, this conclusion is confident and authoritative but does not need to provide evidence to justify this tone because that evidence has already been provided earlier in the essay. You should pay close attention to the manner in which the conclusion links different points together under one banner in order to provide a sense of assuredness.

You should refer to the poet by either using their full name or, more commonly, their surname. After your first usage, you may refer to them as ‘the poet.’ Never refer to the poet using just their first name.

This is a good question, and the answer entirely depends on the level of study as well as the nature of the examination. If you are writing a timed essay for a school exam, you are unlikely to need any form of referencing. If, however, you are writing an essay as part of coursework or at a higher education institution, you may need to refer to the specific guidelines of that institution.

Again, this will depend on the type of essay you are being asked to write. If you are writing a longer essay or writing at a higher educational level, it can be useful to refer to other poems in the writer’s repertoire to help make comments on an aspect of the poem you are primarily writing about. However, for the kind of essay outlined in this article, you should focus solely on the poem you have been asked to write about.

This is one of the most common concerns students have about writing essays . Ultimately, the quality of an essay is more likely to be determined by the quality of paragraphs than the quantity anyway, so you should focus on making your paragraphs as good as they can be. Beyond this, it is important to remember that the time required to write a paragraph is not fixed. The more you write, the faster they will become. You should trust the process, focus on making each paragraph as good as it can be, and you’ll be amazed at how the timing issue takes care of itself.

Other Resources

We hope you have found this article useful and would love for you to comment or reach out to us if you have any queries about what we’ve written. We’d love to hear your feedback!

In the meantime, we’ve collated a list of resources you might find helpful when setting out to tackle a poetry essay, which you can find below.

Do poems have to rhyme?
10 important elements of poetry
How to analyze a poem with SMILE
How to approach unseen poetry
18 Different Types of Themes in Poetry

Home » Poetry Explained » How to Write a Poetry Essay (Complete Guide)

About Joe Santamaria

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Our work is created by a team of talented poetry experts, to provide an in-depth look into poetry, like no other.

Cite This Page

Santamaria, Joe. "How to Write a Poetry Essay (Complete Guide)". Poem Analysis , https://poemanalysis.com/how-to-write-a-poetry-essay/ . Accessed 6 July 2024.

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132 Best Poetry Prompts and Ideas to Spark Creativity

Many great minds considered poetry to be the superior form of art. It transcends mortality and the transience of human life and becomes an eternal monument of people’s existence and creativity. Poetry that was written hundreds of years ago can still mesmerize, astonish, inspire, move, horrify, and elevate us.

There is an unlimited number of themes that can be used to produce great poetry. Inspiration can find its way in a myriad of ways, so this is a chance for you to get your creative juices flowing. Poetry prompts can be of great help when you are trying to find your poetic voice, or trying to step outside your comfort zone. We hope that these ten sets of themes will bring the best of your writing skills.

Ideas for poems about different types of emotions

It is no wonder that the first set is dedicated to emotions. Poetry is almost synonymous with people’s emotional footprint. These 10 prompts cover a wide range of human emotions, so dive in deep!

Write a poem about a moment when you felt overwhelmingly joyful. Try to convey this emotion by depicting the setting, the time, and what prompted this strong feeling of happiness and joy. Was it a personal success? Perhaps a wish you’ve had for years finally came true. Whatever it was, draw from your own life experience.
Sadness is a complex emotion that all of us have felt. Sadness often gives birth to the most poetical literary pieces because many people have experienced grief, or unhappiness at a certain point in their life. Write about the cause for your sadness. Perhaps you experienced a loss of a loved one, perhaps it was a professional failure. Oftentimes, people feel sad when they had their trust betrayed by a person they considered a friend.
When was the last time you felt truly angry? Think of a moment when you suffered injustice at your workplace, or you were deceived by a person you love and trust. Writing a poem about anger can be a powerful poetic expression and a way to deal with your anger.
Write a poem about a time when you felt scared. It can be told from a perspective of a frightened child, or, perhaps, an adult afraid for his/her life. Sometimes fear is connected to certain expectations and uncertainties about the future.
Imagine that you feel very proud. What prompted this feeling of pride? Being proud is usually the result of an accomplishment on a personal or a private level.
Write a poem about a time in your life when you felt brave and powerful. Describe the circumstances that led to this outburst of bravery in a personal, or professional setting. Let the reader feel the confidence and resolution in your actions through the power of verse.
Alienation is a feeling that can be soul-crushing. All people experience some moments in life when they feel as if they don’t quite fit in, or are overlooked. The feeling of alienation is often linked to the feeling of low self-worth. Write about how you managed to overcome this feeling and who, or what helped you in the process. Many people will recognize themselves in a poem about personal alienation.
Another poetry prompt about an emotion is writing about anxiety. In these modern times filled with busy schedules, it is more than expected that people would feel anxious. Take a deep look within and try to discover the source of anxiety in your own life. Sometimes it is the workplace, sometimes it’s your love life, but sometimes people have existential crises that lead to anxiety due to life’s uncertainty and complexity.
Pessimism is a theme widely explored in poetry. People often feels pessimistic due to a variety of problems in their lives. Writing a poem about pessimism may inspire people to try and find another way to look at the world by seeing things in a new perspective.
On the opposite side of the specter is optimism. A poem about being optimistic often falls in the category of carpe-diem poems, or poems about seizing the day and making the best of every opportunity that presents itself in our lives. Write poetry about a bright time in your life when you felt that every new day offered a new chance to become better, happier, and more successful.

Ideas for poems about love

For many people love represents the meaning of life. With its so many forms, love is an eternal spring for inspiration all over the world and across generations.

A mother holding her baby for the first time is one of the most intense human experiences. Try to capture the deepest connection between two human beings that happens instantly. Find a new way to depict the unconditional love that is born with the birth of the baby.
Write a poem about love between siblings. Siblings, especially when they are younger, sometimes have strange ways of showing their love for one another. Write about the big and small gestures that describe the loving connection between brothers and sisters.
Do you believe in love at first sight? Describe the setting, the time, and the situation in which two strangers meet and instantly develop strong feelings of affection. You can write it in a form of a dialogue, or use love letters. You can also give their personal perspectives in different stanzas.
The theme is “a marriage proposal.” Imagine that this poem is written by a person who is planning to propose to their partner. List all the reasons why you think that these two lovers are perfect for each other.
Love stories are never absolutely perfect. Write about a fight between two spouses. Describe the circumstances and the reasons for experiencing anger towards the person you love. Present both sides of the argument. Try to find an elegant solution to the fight and end the poem with a reconciliation.
Not every fight ends in making peace. Unfortunately, some love stories end in divorce. Write about the complex feelings that the two ex-lovers experience in the process.
Unrequited love can be horrible and depressing. The world’s greatest literature includes poem about unrequited love. Try to draw from either personal experience, or from people who are close to you. How did you try to win the other person over? What was the major obstacle? Were you disillusioned about love afterwards?
Write a poem about the one who got away. Start by describing the first date, the first kiss, the first fight, and the last fight before the end of the romance. Write about the expectations you both had from the relationships, the red flags, the disappointment, and the lost love.
Write a poem about the love between your grandparents. How did they show their affection for one another? Which small love gestures did you enjoy witnessing as a child? What did you learn from seeing how much they still care for each other? Try to portray the respect and devotion of a long-lasting relationship.
Talk about love in general. Write about the reasons why it is a vital part of human’s experience. Meditate upon your own experiences regarding different kinds of love. Write about the ways in which love makes us better people. Find different ways to depict the manner in which love enriches our souls.

Ideas for poems about life in general

Life is mysteriously beautiful, complex, difficult, and painful. You can show your appreciation for it, by writing on at least one of the following ten prompts.

Growing old is an important part of the life cycle. Some people fear the inevitable end so much that they don’t live their life to the fullest. Others are older and wiser, so they happily pass their knowledge and wisdom to the future generations. Write about your own experience, or how the old age of family members has affected your own life.
Write a poem about a specific accomplishment in your life and how it has improved you as a person.
The main theme of the poem is “the life cycle.” Everything which is born eventually dies, and the cycle starts again.
Write a poem about the experience of a couple who is expecting a baby. Write about the overwhelming emotions, love, affection, and care that the future parents feel.
There are many obstacles in life, and facing them is an important aspect in a person’s life. Write a poem about the potential hardships in life and how they affect people’s lives.
Write a poem from a child’s point of view. Remember how you used to perceive the world and how you tried to explain things to yourself using child’s logic. The poem will depict the sweetly naïve child’s perceptions of the world.
Write a poem about hope. Life is hard and complex as it is, so hope is often our driving force. Think of a time when you were hopeful.
Write a poem about a usual, boring day. Find poetry in the monotony of life.
Write a poem about travelling to a foreign country. Capture the essence of changing scenery, and dwell on the way travelling makes us more open-minded.
Think of a time when you were badly hurt. Write a poem about how you dealt with the pain.

Ideas for poems about death

People from every culture and generation in the world have been obsessed with understanding death and what comes after it. It brings, sadness, nostalgia, wisdom. These ten prompts can stir your imagination and inspire philosophical thought about the most mysterious concept in the world.

Write a poem about the fondest memory you have of a person who had passed away. Why is this memory so special? How did you feel when this person died?
Death is often personified. Write a poem addressing Death as a person. What is it that you would like to tell him? What would you want to ask him?
Imagine that you are Death and you hate your vocation. How do you justify your actions? You can use a lighter tone for the poem.
Write a poem about a person who had a near-death experience. What happened to them? How did they survive? Did they change for the better after it?
Write a poem about a real or an imaginary genocide.
Write a poem about a person trying to deceive Death and reach immortality.
Write a poem about the death of a pet. What did you do to help you deal with the loss?
Imagine that you have only a day to live. What would you do?
Write a poem about the first time you understood the concept of death.
How do you want to be remembered after you die? Write a poem about how your death is going to affect your loved ones.

Ideas for poems about philosophy

People are gifted with intelligence, wisdom, and the power to think in abstract ways. People’s quest to understand the meaning of life and the world surrounding us is a fantastic basis for writing poetry.

Write a poem about what you perceive to be the meaning of life.
Friendship is a type of human connection that makes people happier and healthier in every possible way. Write a poem about your best friend, or somebody you’ve lost.
The thirst for knowledge is a concept that defines us as a human race. Write a poem about the eternal quest for knowledge.
Imagination is a distinctly human quality. Write a poem about the role imagination plays in creating art.
Write a poem inspired by the Machiavellian quote that the goal justifies the means.
Write a poem about people’s ancient desire to explain the natural phenomena by inventing elaborate mythological stories.
Write a poem about the good and the bad aspects of humility.
Patience teaches us a valuable lesson about controlling our desires. Write a poem about a time when you had to be patient when you wanted something.
Write a poem about the benefits from daily meditation.
Write a poem about perfection. Think of the combination of aesthetics and ethics and how perfection can be achieved.

Ideas for poems about everyday things

Sometimes the most poetic compositions are created out of the simplicity of life. These ten prompts can help you find poetry in the smallest of things around you.

Write a poem about your everyday little rituals.
Write a poem about raindrops slowly falling down the window glass while you’re thinking about your life in general.
Write a poem about a relaxing walk in the park. Use natural imagery, but also try to depict the noises you hear: rustling, splashing, chirping, etc.
Write a short poem about the simple pleasure one gets from eating a juicy piece of fruit.
Pets are an important part in our lives. Write a poem about the joyfulness from playing with your pet.
Everybody makes mistakes, so write a poem about apologizing to somebody for something you’ve done.
Write a poem about a sunny morning when you went out and bought some flowers from a flower shop.
Eating a dessert might be the most relaxing and enjoyable part of dinner. Write a short poem about eating a delicious dessert.
Write a poem about a time when you didn’t have electricity due to a heavy storm, so you had to read a book using a candlelight.
Think of an activity that relaxes you before falling asleep and write a poem about it. Perhaps the activity can be listening to Mozart!

Ideas for poems about time

Time, even for scientists, is one of the most interesting concepts. Its abstractness has served as an inspiration for many philosophical and literary works. The following prompts can guide you into writing poetry about different complexities of the notion of time.

Write a poem about a childhood memory that still brings you joy when you think about it.
Write a poem about the modern age we live it. What is positive and what is negative about living today
Think of a lost opportunity because the timing wasn’t right. Write a poem about the importance of using every opportunity, which is difficult because people often find excuses for their failures.
Write about a person who has wasted his/her youth. This person feels immensely remorseful.
Waking up after having spent a few months in a coma can make people reevaluate their life choices and decisions.
Write a poem about a time in the past when you experienced an epiphany – a sudden realization of great truth.
Write about the development of the human life, starting from the time a person is a toddler.
Describe the sunset and use it as a metaphor for the end of a person’s life.
Describe the sunrise and link it metaphorically to the concept of birth.
Write a poem about an antique clock.

Ideas for poems about different forms of art

Poetry has always been regarded as one of the most sophisticated aspects of human existence. As a form of art, it is inevitably connected to other forms of art. These ten prompts can inspire pieces that combine different artforms.

Write a poem about the feelings that overcome you while listening to your favorite music.
Write a poem about a Shakespearean play.
Write a poem about a mysterious painter.
Write a poem from the perspective of a ballet shoes.
Describe the images and stories painted on a Grecian urn.
Imagine that you are a famous painter looking at a freshly finished piece. Write a poem about the painter’s perceptions of a painting.
Write a poem about a day spent in a museum.
Write a poem about a film character that you admire.
Write a poem that will instruct actors on the manner that they should act, which is similar to prince Hamlet’s speech to the players.
Write a modernized version of a famous speech taken from a Renaissance play.

Ideas for poems about historical events

Historia est magistra vitae. Indeed, history teaches us about life. Numerous works have been written celebrating historical events, so this is your chance to use verses to do the same.

Imagine that you lived in the period of Alexander the Great. Write a poem about him.
Write a poem about the hardships in World War I.
Write a poem about life in the industrial revolution in England.
Write a poem about Martin Luther King.
Imagine that you are an archaeologist who makes a startling discovery in Egypt.
Imagine you saw the apple falling on Sir Isaac Newton’s head.
Write a poem about Queen Elizabeth I. She was an exceptional monarch that deserves literary praise.
Write a poem about the trial of Galileo Galilei.
You are Alexander Bell, the person who invented the telephone. How is the world different because of you?
Write a poem about Archimedes and his “eureka” moment.

Ideas for poems about religion and spirituality

If something truly separates us humans from the other forms of life on this planet, it is spirituality. The belief in a higher power is a distinctively human quality. Delve deeper into your own beliefs and spirituality and put your religious experience into words.

How can you restore the faith in God in somebody who seems to have lost it? How can you help this person find his way again?
Imagine that you are one of the three Magi following a star to Bethlehem.
Write a poem about a moment you felt that you are one with nature.
Describe your feelings after meditation. Write about the setting, your surroundings, and the feelings that come rushing in.
Write a poem about the afterlife. It doesn’t have to your own perception. It can be inspired by major religions.
Think of a religious temple you’ve visited. How did it make you feel? Where was it? Is it real, or imaginary?
Everybody has experienced personal hardships. Write a poem about a difficult period in your life and about your prayers to overcome it.
The death of a close family member, or a spouse can be the most traumatic experience in a person’s life. Write about your relationship to God after you lost somebody you loved. Did it change?
Write a poem about temptation. Did you give in to the temptation? How did you feel after that?
Imagine that you are God for only a day. What would you do with your power?

Ideas for poems about family life

The family life is in the core of a healthy society. Family ties can bring you joy, sadness, love, pride, etc. Use the following prompts to express your understanding of family life.

Write a poem about a child who gets a puppy as a Christmas present.
Describe a family trip to the ZOO. The tone can be lighter, and it can be told from the children’s point of view.
Write a poem about a family summer vacation. Draw inspiration from from jumping into the water, sunbathing, building sand castles, exploring cities’ architecture and culture. A summer vacation brings the best in every family, so you could go back to your own childhood in order to depict a realistic representation of the feeling.
You are celebrating Christmas with your extended family. Write a poem about the conversation around the dinner table.
Imagine that you are a mother, or a father expecting a child. You have created a new heartbeat in the world. Try to depict the wonders that surround procreation.
You are planning a surprise birthday party for you father and you’ve invited all of his close friends into his home.
Write a poem celebrating your parent’s 40-year anniversary. Tell them why this is a special event for you, how much they’ve touched your life, and how much affection you have for them.
Imagine that you are stuck with your sibling in an elevator for two hours. What are you going to talk about?
Write a poem about leaving the home you were born in and moving to anew place. Try to portray the strong feelings of nostalgia and the memories that arise from packing your life in card boxes.
Write a poem about an ill family member. Use your verses to make them feel better and to bring hope that everything will turn out alright in the end.

Ideas for poems about nature and travelling

Nature is a powerful and mesmerizing force that sustains us. We are a part of nature, and nature is within all of us. These ten prompts can serve as an inspiration for you to create an homage to this planet.

Write a poem about the beginning of spring and the new cycle of life. Use natural imagery, colors, and active verbs that would signify the awakening of nature.
Think of a city that you haven’t visited yet, but you really want to. Why is it so? Is it because it is exotic? Is it because of its architecture? Perhaps, you are more interested in the people and their culture.
Write a poem about a natural phenomenon. Are you astonished by it? Is it devastating for people? Focus on the power of nature.
Imagine that you are a raindrop and describe your journey.
Many poems have been written about the Sun and the Moon. Try to find a different angle when writing about them.
Write a poem about meeting an interesting/mysterious/funny person on a train in a foreign country. How did you start the conversation? How long did you talk? Did you explore the city together?
Imagine that you are on top of Mount Everest. How do you feel? Who are you with? How can you inspire other mountaineers to conquer the highest mountain peak?
The ocean, unlike the earth, can’t be conquered by humans. The ocean is too powerful and people are it his mercy during every voyage, regardless of the length. Write a poem about the respect people should have for this large body of water.
Write a poem about the change of seasons and the passing of time.
Imagine that you’ve been granted to power to fly for a month. Where would you go? Why? How do you think your life and perceptions will change after that month?

Ideas for poems with supernatural elements

Human’s imagination is limitless and astonishing. Centuries ago people would come together to tell stories, often incorporating supernatural elements in their accounts. By doing so, they were able to cause catharsis. Mythologies were created because people couldn’t explain natural phenomena. The fight between personifications of good and evil have been of great interest for millions of literature lovers. Here are 12 prompts to help you get started.

Imagine that you are moving into what others believe to be a haunted house.
How far would you go to save a loved one? Would you make a deal with the devil?
You are sage who gives advice to people you believe have kind hearts.
You are a dragon defending your family from human invaders.
Write a poem about a princess locked in a high tower and who isn’t allowed to look at the real world outside her windows.
You find a magic ring in your grandmother’s old casket. You can heal whomever you want on the expense of another human being.
A man who presumably has died at sea returns on Halloween to his old house to visit his grieving mother.
You have the ability to communicate with trees and gain wisdom.
Write a poem from the point of view of a werewolf.
Write a poem about the three Fates who decide on the fate of a baby.
Imagine that world is slowly disappearing and nobody could explain how. Offer a solution to the problem.
You have the ability to foretell the future. You see a great tragedy on a large scale that is to happen in a month. What do you do to stop it? Can you really alter the future with your actions?

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A list of 50 inspirational topics for writing a poem

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There is no one way to approach writing. The process of finding inspiration and then putting that inspiration into words is a unique and individual experience for each writer. Of course, you don't need prompts to write, but they can help you tap into your creative energy and feel part of a dialogue.

I've put together a list of 50 topics that can be particularly inspiring; thinking about these topics can help jumpstart the creative process.

When looking for inspiration, it's important to explore all aspects of your life and the world around you. By writing about what you know and feel passionately about, you can create poems that are authentic and meaningful to you and your readers. Of course, you can also allow the creative imagination to jump in--let some magic, some humor, some whimsy come into the writing experience.

As a poet and writer, I've learned that the most important skill is to be open to and believe in the value of your own creativity . I've learned from reading others and from having others read and comment on my poems. As I wrote more and was more in alignment with myself, my writing got more understandable, more moving, and more skillful. But it was only when I really let go of the idea of wanting to please others and could listen more deeply to myself that I began to write my most powerful work.

The following list provides a variety of poem topics that can be used for inspiration when writing your next poem:

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50 Poem Topics And Ideas To Help You Write Your Next Poem

The beauty and mystery of nature can be a great source of inspiration for poets. Write about the changing seasons, a particular flower or tree, the stars or moon, the ocean, mountains, or any other aspect of the natural world that speaks to you.

2. Childhood memories

Reflect on a time from your childhood that was particularly special or meaningful to you. Write about the sights, sounds, and smells of that time and what it meant to you then and now.

3. A significant event

Write about an event that has had a major impact on your life, whether positive or negative. Now write a poem describing how this event has changed you.

Express your deepest emotions and write about the power of love in all its forms. This could be a poem about romantic love, the love between friends or family members, or even self-love.

5. Happiness

What makes you happy? What are the small things in life that bring you joy? Write about the moments and people that make you smile and fill your heart with happiness.

6. Friendship

Write about the value of friendship, and how it has positively affected your life. This could also be a poem about saying goodbye to a friend, or remembering a lost friend.

7. Overcoming adversity

We all face challenges in life, but how we deal with them can make us stronger. Write about a time when you faced and overcame a difficult situation. What did you learn from the experience?

8. Gratitude

Express what you are grateful for in your life, and why these things are important to you. If you haven't had a chance to read my interview with Ross Gay , poet, writer and visionary, I highly recommend it. In this interview, we talked about his new book Be Holding, his Book of Delights, Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, and how to practice attention, gratitude, and care both in poetry and in our difficult but also joy-filled world. Just click here to read it . I'm sure you'll enjoy it!

Image by S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay

How has your life changed over the years? What are some of the things that are different now than they were in the past? Write a poem about the process of change, and how it can be both scary and exciting.

10. Hope

In spite of everything, we all need to believe that better days are ahead. Write a poem about hope, and how it can help us get through tough times. What gives you hope? Describe what hope feels like, and how it helps you in your life.

11. A moment in time

Write about a specific moment that was particularly memorable or significant to you. It could be a happy memory, a sad memory, or even a moment of realization or understanding.

12. A day in the life

Describe a typical day in your life, or write about a specific day that was particularly memorable.

13. Your favorite place

We all have a place that makes us feel safe and happy. Write about your favorite place, and what it is that you love about it. Write about what makes it so special, and how it makes you feel.

14. An object

Write about a particular object that has special meaning to you. It could be something that you use every day, or something that you only see occasionally.

15. A person

Write about someone who has had a major impact on your life, for better or for worse. This could be a family member, friend, teacher, or anyone else who has made a significant impact on you.

16. A memory

Reflect on a specific memory that is significant to you. What does it remind you of? Write a poem celebrating a happy memory, or exploring a painful memory.

17. A feeling

Write about a feeling that is particularly intense or meaningful to you. Describe a specific emotion, and how it feels in your body and mind. No matter what you write about, poetry can be a powerful way to express your thoughts and emotions. So don't be afraid to let your words flow freely and see where they take you.

image of landscape: the earth and sky with clouds

18. The earth

Express your love and appreciation for our planet, and everything that it has to offer. Write about the importance of taking care of it. Write a poem or prose using the phrase "the poetry of the earth." What does that phrase mean to you?

19. A hobby

Write about something you enjoy doing, and why it is so important to you.

20. An experience

Describe a particular experience that was particularly memorable or impactful for you.

21. Your dreams

What are your hopes and dreams for the future? Write about what you want to achieve, and how you plan to get there.

22. Your fears

What are you afraid of, and why? What do these fears mean to you?

Explore the emotions associated with losing something or someone important to you. When you lose something, it's natural to feel pain, grief, and even anger. Writing about these feelings can help you to process them and move on .

24. A time when you felt lost

Describe a time in your life when you felt lost or confused. What helped you find your way again?

25. A time when you felt alone

Writing poetry can be therapeutic, and can help you to express feelings that you may not be able to express in any other way. We all feel alone at times, but it's important to remember that we are never truly alone. Write about a time when you felt alone, and how you coped with it.

26. A time when you felt angry

We all experience a range of emotions, and it's okay to write about the negative ones as well. Use your anger to fuel your words, and write about whatever it is that made you angry.

27. A time when you felt sad

We all experience sadness at times. Write about a time when you felt particularly low, and how you coped with it.

28. Your hopes for the future

29. your favorite thing.

What is your favorite thing in the world? Write about why it is so important to you.

30. A time when you felt happy

What makes you truly happy? Write about a time when you felt this way, and why it was so special to you.

31. Your worst nightmare

Write a poem inspired by your deepest, darkest fears. Write about what this fear means to you, and how it affects your life.

32. A time when you were proud of yourself

We all have moments that we are proud of. Write about a time when you felt this way, and what it was that made you so proud.

33. A time when you laughed

Laughter is one of the best things in life. Write about a time when you laughed until you cried, and what made it so funny.

34. A time when you cried

We all cry at times. Write about a time when you felt particularly sad, and how you coped with it.

35. A time when you were disappointed

A time when you were disappointed: We all have moments when things don't go the way we wanted them to. Write a poem inspired by a time when you were disappointed and had to pick yourself up and keep going.

36. A time when you felt scared

37. a time when you helped someone.

Describe a time when you went out of your way to help someone else. What made you do it, and how did it make you feel?

38. A time when you felt supported

We all need support at times. Write about a time when someone was there for you, and how it made you feel.

39. Your favorite thing about yourself

What do you love about yourself? Write about why you are so special to you. Sometimes we forget why we are amazing! So take a moment and drop out some of your best qualities.

40. Your favorite thing about life

What do you love about life? Write about what makes it so precious to you.

41. Your favorite thing about people

What do you love about people? Write about what makes them so special to you.

42. Your favorite quote

Do you have a favorite quote? Write about what it means to you, and why it is so important to you.

43. A time when you felt proud of someone else

We all feel proud of others at times. Describe a time when you felt this way, and who it was that you were proud of.

44. Your favorite memory

What is your favorite memory? Write about what made it so special to you.

45. A time when you were surprised

We all experience surprise at times. Describe a time when something unexpected happened, and how it made you feel.

46. A time when you made a difference

We all have the ability to make a difference. Write about a time when you did just that, and how it made you feel.

47. A time when you felt loved

We all need love in our lives. Write about a time when you felt particularly loved and supported, and why it meant so much to you.

48. Something that you are passionate about

What are you passionate about? Write about what this passion means to you, and how it drives you.

49. Your hopes for the world

What are your hopes for the world? Write about what you would like to see change, and how you think we can make it happen.

50. Finally, last, but certainly not least, take inspiration from any of your favorite poems.

Reading is one of the best ways to be inspired as a poet and to find poetry topics. Explore my list of 15 morning poems for some inspiration .

These are just a few poem topics to get you started based on my own experiences and what I value most in life. Feel free to choose whichever topic speaks to you, or mix and match several different ones to create your own poem.

If none of these inspire you, think about what matters most to you and write about that. The most important thing is to be true to your own voice and express how you feel in your own words.

So don't be afraid to experiment with different poem styles or subject matter until you find the right fit for you. Whatever you do, have fun with it and let your creativity flow!

I am a member of a group called Toastmasters. One of my favorite parts of our meeting is Table Topics, where a person responds with a 2 minute impromptu response to a speaking prompt, not unlike your fifty topics. Because of the eclectic diversity of our members, it is here where I get to know the soul of a member. I am going to use some of the 50 prompts when I am next, the table topic master.

I'm so glad that you find this helpful and will use it in your Toastmasters group. I agree, it's a nice way to get to know other people.

Can I get interesting poetry prompts for my poetry group

Hi! I was thinking maybe take a topic maybe like a hobby, nature, or something else you find exciting and interesting and compare it to something heartbreaking or sad. Such as mental disorders, break ups, a person you lost, and ect. I have done this before and it really helped me be more inspiring to myself and others. I also think it is very interesting just to compare things!

Thank u so much for helping me out

Poetry can be amazingly emotive. All things considered, artists, similar to the journalists of the best books ever and best book club books, have an approach to communicating feelings that we probably won't have the option to really express.

Yes, I completely agree!

Thanks for this web it really helps me with school to get some ideas for the poem I'm writing.

I'm so glad this was helpful for you!

Verse can be incredibly emotive. Taking everything into account, craftsmen, like the writers of the best books ever and best book club books, have a way to deal with imparting sentiments that we presumably will not have the choice to communicate truly.

Is a great article for all readers because you have described the ideas of poem topics there are many people or students are found to these ideas because they have need to write their poem and assignments and other writing

Thank you for your comments!

This was very helpful

I love love love these poem ideas! Keep up the work!

I'm so glad!

Hello, I am working on a poetry project, and these prompts were really helpful! Thanks for the tips! You're great, just keep doing what you're doing! 🙂

So glad it was helpful!

24 and 25 are basically the same, with feeling lost and feeling alone. other than that it's very helpful.

That’s really interesting: when we feel lost, we often feel alone. And when we feel alone, we often feel lost. But there are also differences between the two experiences, too. And we can feel surrounded by people, but also lost and alone but with a clear sense of direction. I’m glad you found the list helpful!

Great ideas but I feel that it's best to just write from the heart and do it because you want to. not because of a website. I want to say this to all people reading this website: Don't take the advice. Write what comes into mind and make a beautiful word formation. I have written so many of my own poems about how I feel and now I can write poems about anything. Please write what you feel in the moment even if it's sad. Anything makes a great poem so don't worry about what you need to write a poem about. Now I am going to say something to the person who made this website: I see why you made this. For people who don't know what to write about. I think your ideas are great, but it really is better to just write what comes to your mind. I have written over 50 poems and I had no guidance. Please take my advice. I don't ask that you delete the website but that you read this.

Yes, writing from the heart is great. And having prompts can be also helpful–and even help us write more from the hearth. Many tools. There is no one right way 🙂

It helps me a lot…… Thank you 🙏🏻 very much ☺️💯💯

hello. i am non established poet from india.. wanting to write my first ever poem to publish.. you article helped me a lot..

This realy helped

Number 51: A time when you felt free from all the bd things in life

thats what i will now write about

I am what is termed an automatic poet, a visionary compelled to channel by pen messages from within. Spiritual messages from God and Jesus flow through my pen I write the time the poem begins and ends as the lines flow like rushing rivers. I can’t even stop to think, I just write. I’ve never had courses in writing and never know my poems content until it is written. The titles come last. I am learning to be in the moment and not concern myself with what will others think of me when I read to them. I belong to a small writers group that often ask me, where do you come from that you write as you do. Maybe I’m channeling my many poet and author ancestors or maybe I’m just being me. I am the poet Snowflake. Thank you for enlightening me to be more free

Lately, I’ve found myself drawn to the enchanting world of poetry and https://www.nursingpaper.com/msn-writing-service/ The rhythm of words, the dance of metaphors, it all captivates me. Exploring emotions through verses feels like unraveling mysteries of the heart. Whether it’s the gentle sway of nature’s symphony or the turbulence of human emotions, poetry offers a canvas to paint with words. Each stanza is a journey, a glimpse into the soul’s depths. With every line, I discover new ways to express the ineffable. Writing poetry isn’t just a hobby; it’s a passion that ignites my creativity and allows me to weave stories with the magic of language.

One of the primary advantages of assignment writing is the opportunity it provides for students to deepen their subject knowledge. Engaging in write my assignment , analyzing data, and formulating arguments allows students to explore topics in greater detail. By delving into a subject, students gain a comprehensive understanding of its concepts, theories, and practical applications. This process not only facilitates better performance in assignments but also enriches their overall academic journey.

Booking flights at the best prices requires a strategic approach. Start by using fare comparison websites like Skyscanner, Kayak, and Google Flights to compare prices across various airlines. These platforms allow you to see a range of options and find the most affordable flights. Setting up fare alerts can help you get notified when prices drop for your desired routes, ensuring you never miss a deal.

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Poetry Analysis Essay Guide: Structure, Examples, and Writing Tips

Updated 03 Jul 2024

With its intricate language and captivating imagery, poetry has the remarkable ability to touch the depths of our emotions and provoke reflections. As readers, we often find ourselves captivated by the beauty and depth of a poem, but when tasked with analyzing and interpreting its layers of meaning, we may feel overwhelmed.

This blog post is your full poem analysis essay guide — you will get valuable insights and practical tips to navigate the intricate world of poetry analysis.

What is a poetry analysis essay? Quick explanation

A poetry analysis examines and interprets a poem to understand its meaning, themes, structure, language, and literary devices used by the poet. It seeks to go beyond the surface level and delve into the poem's complexities and nuances, uncovering its intentions, symbolism, and the overall effect created through the choice of words, imagery, rhythm, and other literary devices.

An analysis can change how you view the poem and help you see a deeper meaning, which helps to develop a greater appreciation for the artistry of poetry. To conduct a poetry analysis essay, you must engage with the poem on multiple levels, exploring its themes, emotions, and ideas.

How to choose a topic for a poetry analysis essay?

When choosing a poetry analysis essay topic, you should start by reading various poems and selecting one that captures your interest. Look for poems that resonate with you emotionally or intellectually or have themes or elements you find intriguing.

You can also look at its complexity and depth: a poem with multiple layers of meaning, rich imagery, and intricate language can provide ample material for analysis. Avoid choosing too simplistic or straightforward poems, as they may limit the depth of analysis.

Then, consider the thematic poem elements. Does it explore love, nature, identity, death, or social issues? Choose the one that addresses themes you find compelling or relevant, as it will make the analysis more engaging.

Remember, the topic you choose should be one that you feel passionate about, and that allows for a thorough and insightful analysis. It should offer enough material for exploration and interpretation, enabling you to delve into the poem's nuances and uncover deeper layers of meaning.

Poetry analysis essay outline with examples

An outline should include various sections to ensure a comprehensive and organized analysis — we added key rules and poetry analysis essay examples to guide you.

Introduction

The introduction sets the tone for the essay and provides the necessary context. It introduces the poem and the poet, establishes the focus of the analysis, and presents the thesis statement.

Include the following:

Provide the title, poet's name, and publication date.
Add brief background information about the poet and the poem's context.
State your main argument or poem interpretation.

Poem analysis essay example :

‘Robert Frost's poem 'The Road Not Taken,' published in 1916, is a widely celebrated piece of American literature. In this poem, Frost explores the theme of choices and their lifelong impact. Closely examining the poem's language, symbolism, and narrative perspective makes it clear that 'The Road Not Taken' challenges the notion of individualism and invites a reconsideration of the conventional interpretation.’

Poem summary

A summary of the poetry analysis essay provides a concise overview of its content and structure. It helps the reader grasp the key elements of the poem before delving into the analysis. You need to:

Summarize the content and structure of the poem.
Highlight key events, images, or ideas presented in the poem.

'The Road Not Taken' is a narrative poem consisting of four stanzas with a rhyming scheme of ABAAB. The speaker reflects on a pivotal moment in their life when faced with two diverging paths in a yellow wood. They ultimately choose the less traveled road, which proves to have a profound impact on their life journey."

Analysis of poetic devices

Analyzing poetic devices helps uncover the poet's intentional choices, which deepen the understanding of the themes, emotions, and overall impact on the reader. You need to:

Identify and analyze the literary devices.
Discuss their effects on the poem's meaning and tone.
Explore how the devices contribute to the overall poetic experience.

Metaphor: Frost uses the metaphor of the roads to symbolize life choices. By describing the two paths as 'diverged in a yellow wood,' he invites readers to consider the paths as representative of life's diverging opportunities. The metaphor emphasizes the significance of decision-making and the uncertainty that accompanies it.

Analysis of themes

By analyzing how themes are developed and conveyed, the essay reveals the poem's complexities and invites readers to engage with its deeper layers of meaning.

Make sure you complete the following:

Identify and explore the central poem themes.
Analyze how these themes are developed and conveyed throughout the poem.
Provide evidence to support your analysis.

Individualism vs. Conformity: Frost challenges the conventional interpretation of the poem as a celebration of individualism. Instead, he suggests that both paths were equally worn, implying that choices often appear more significant in retrospect. The poem raises questions about the role of individual agency and the influence of societal expectations in decision-making.

If you have ever worked on other types of analysis, like a literary analysis essay , you know that the conclusion needs to summarize the main points and findings. It reinforces the thesis statement and restates the significance of the analysis. Your job is to:

Recapitulate the analyzed poem's central themes, literary devices, and elements.
Restate the thesis statement or main argument and emphasize how the analysis has supported and illuminated it.
Discuss the broader significance of the poem and its analysis.

In conclusion, John Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale" transports us to a realm where the boundaries between reality and imagination blur. Through his masterful use of vivid imagery, melodic language, and introspective musings, Keats invites us to contemplate the ephemeral nature of life and the solace that art can offer.

Poetry analysis essay: full guide

While poetry analysis is essential, some students also get asked to conduct a literature review. You only need to shoot ‘ write my literature review ’ to get professional assistance and learn more. In this section, we will review key things you must include in your poem analysis essay.

By analyzing the title of a poem, you can gain insights into the poet's intentions, thematic focus, and overall tone and atmosphere. It helps create a deeper exploration of the poem's content and enhances your understanding of its artistic and emotional impact.

Consider the literal meaning. Start by examining the literal meaning of the title. Look for any keywords, phrases, or references that stand out. Consider the denotative meaning of these words and how they relate to the subject matter or themes you might expect to find in the poem.
Look for symbolism. Titles often carry symbolic or metaphorical significance. Consider whether the title has a deeper symbolic meaning beyond its literal interpretation. Look for potential connections between the title and the content or themes of the poem.
Examine word choice and connotations. Pay attention to the specific words chosen for the title. Consider their connotations and the associations they evoke. Analyze how these words contribute to the poem's tone, mood, or overall atmosphere. Reflect on whether the title reflects a positive, negative, ambiguous, or ironic tone.
Explore multiple interpretations. Titles can be open to interpretation, allowing for multiple layers of meaning. Consider different interpretations of the title and how they align with your initial understanding of the piece. Reflect on how these interpretations influence your overall analysis and understanding of the poem.
Reflect on the poet's intention.
Consider the poet's intention in choosing the title. Reflect on whether the title serves to summarize, encapsulate, or add complexity to the poem's themes or ideas. Analyze how the title may reflect the poet's artistic vision or provide a clue to their intended message.
Compare with the ending. Sometimes, the title of a poem gains additional significance or takes on new meaning when compared with the poem's ending. Analyze the relationship between the title and the final lines of the poem. Reflect on whether the title is reaffirmed, challenged, or transformed by the poem's conclusion.

While conducting poetry analysis essays, analyzing a poem's structure is a must. Here are questions that will guide you:

Determine the specific form of the poem. Is it a sonnet, a haiku, a ballad, or a free verse?
Are the lengths of the lines and stanzas consistent or vary throughout the poem? Reflect on how these breaks and variations contribute to the poem's rhythm, pacing, and overall effect.
Does the poem follow a specific rhyme scheme (such as AABB, ABAB, or ABBA), or if it lacks a regular rhyme pattern?
Are there any repeated words, phrases, or entire lines? Reflect on why the poet employs repetition and how it contributes to the overall meaning or effect of the poem.
How does punctuation affect the flow and interpretation of the piece? Does the poet use punctuation to create pauses, emphasize certain words or phrases, or convey a specific tone or mood?
Consider how the structure relates to its content and themes. Does the form enhance or challenge the poem's meaning? Analyze whether there is harmony or tension between the form and the subject matter and how this contributes to the poem's overall effect.

Tone and intonation of the poetry

By paying attention to the tone and intonation, you can gain insights into the poet's attitude, mood, and overall atmosphere. To analyze the tone and intonation in your poem analysis essay, read it multiple times, immersing yourself in the language and imagery used. Consider the following aspects:

Word choice. Look for words with strong connotations that evoke particular emotions or create a specific mood. Consider whether the words used convey a sense of joy, sadness, anger, or contemplation.

Figurative language. Analyze the poem's figurative language, such as metaphors, similes, and personification. Consider how these devices contribute to the tone and intonation. For example, using vivid metaphors may create a tone of intensity or heightened emotion, while gentle similes may convey a more tender or reflective tone.

Sentence structure and syntax. Note whether the sentences are long or short, fragmented or flowing. Consider how the poet's choices in sentence structure and syntax influence the tone and rhythm of the poem. Short, abrupt sentences may create a sense of urgency or tension, while longer, flowing sentences may convey a more contemplative or relaxed tone.

Analyzing the purpose of a poem involves examining the poet's intentions, motivations, and the message they seek to convey through their work.

Reflect on the poet's background, including their life experiences, cultural influences, and literary tradition. Consider the historical, social, or political context in which the poem was written. Analyze how these factors may have shaped the poet's purpose and influenced their choice of subject matter or themes.
Identify the main themes or ideas explored in the poem. Themes can range from love, nature, identity, social justice, mortality, or any other subject that the poet engages with. Reflect on the poet's purpose in addressing these themes and how they relate to the larger human experience or the poet's personal beliefs.
Consider how literary devices such as metaphors, similes, symbolism, or allusion contribute to the poem's purpose. Reflect on how they enhance the meaning, create vivid imagery, or add layers of depth to the poet's message.
Reflect on the impact the poem has on you as a reader. Analyze how the poet's purpose is conveyed through the emotional, intellectual, or sensory responses evoked by the poem. You can reflect on whether the poem achieves its purpose in engaging, enlightening, or transforming the reader's understanding or perspective.
Based on your analysis, formulate your interpretation of the poet's purpose. Just like with the critical analysis essay example , engage with the text and connect your findings to your own experiences, knowledge, or beliefs. It’s a good idea to support your interpretation with evidence from the poem, highlighting specific lines, images, or techniques that contribute to the poet's purpose.

Language and imagery

Analyzing the language and imagery of poetry involves closely examining the poet's use of language, vivid descriptions, and literary devices to create a rich sensory experience for the reader.

Imagery refers to sensory language that creates vivid mental images in the reader's mind. Pay attention to the visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory images created by the poet.
Symbols are objects, images, or actions representing deeper meanings beyond their literal interpretation. Analyze the symbols used in the poem and consider their significance and potential interpretations.
Poetic devices are techniques poets use to enhance their work's meaning, sound, and musicality. Analyze the following poetic devices and their impact on the poem:

Metaphor: Identify comparisons between two seemingly unrelated things without using "like" or "as."

Sample: "Her laughter was a melody that danced through the air."

Simile: Notice comparisons that use "like" or "as" to liken one thing to another.

Sample: "His smile shone like the sun on a summer's day."

Personification: Look for instances where non-human objects or abstract concepts are given human qualities or characteristics.

Sample: "The wind whispered secrets through the trees."

Alliteration: Identify the repetition of consonant sounds, particularly at the beginning of words.

Sample: "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers."

Assonance: Notice the repetition of vowel sounds within words.

Sample: "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain."

Onomatopoeia: Identify words that imitate or resemble the sounds they describe.

Sample: "The sizzle of the frying pan filled the kitchen."

Analyzing the music of a poem involves examining the poet's use of sound patterns, rhythm, meter, and other musical elements to create a harmonious and melodic effect.

Poem's meter. Meter refers to the rhythmic pattern created by stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry. Analyzing it helps you understand the poem's musical structure and its effect on the reader.

Rhyme and rhyme scheme. Examine the poem's use of rhyme, including end rhymes (rhyming words at the end of lines) and internal rhymes (rhyming words within lines). Analyzing rhyme and rhyme schemes provides insights into the poem's musicality and the poet's deliberate choices.

Sound devices . Look for sound devices employed by the poet to create musical effects, including alliteration, assonance, and consonance.

Writing poetry analysis essay: key points

Read the poem multiple times to grasp its meaning and gather initial impressions.
Analyze the title and consider its significance in the poem's themes and content.
Examining poetry analysis structure, including its stanzas, lines, and rhyme scheme.
Analyze the language and imagery used, noting any literary devices the poet employs.
Consider the tone and mood of the piece of poetry and how they contribute to its overall message.
Reflect on the purpose of the poem and the poet's intended audience.
Formulate a clear thesis statement that presents your interpretation or analysis.
Develop the body paragraphs, each focusing on a specific aspect.
Support your analysis with evidence from the work, including quotes and examples.
Explain the significance of your findings and how they contribute to the overall understanding of the poem.
Conclude your paper by summarizing your main points and reflecting thoughtfully on the poem's impact or significance.

Poetry analysis essay template

I. Introduction

Hook: Begin with an attention-grabbing statement or question.
Context: Provide brief background information about the poet and the poem.
Thesis statement: State your main argument or interpretation.

II. Analysis of Title

Analyze the title's significance and possible meanings.
Discuss how the title sets the tone or introduces key themes.

III. Analysis of Structure

Examine the poem's structure, including stanzas, lines, and rhyme scheme.
Analyze the impact of the structure on the poem's meaning or rhythm.

IV. Analysis of Language and Imagery

Identify and analyze literary devices used in the poem (e.g., metaphors, similes, personification).
Discuss the effectiveness of the poet's language in conveying the poem's themes or emotions.
Analyze the vividness and impact of the poem's imagery.

V. Analysis of Tone and Mood

Identify the piece's overall tone (e.g., joyful, melancholic, contemplative).
Discuss how the poet's tone contributes to the reader's understanding or emotional response.
Analyze the mood created by the poem's language and imagery.

VI. Analysis of Themes and Meaning

Identify the central themes.
Analyze how the poet develops and conveys these themes through various poetic elements.
Discuss the deeper meaning or message conveyed by the poem.

VII. Conclusion

Summarize the main points discussed in the essay.
Restate the thesis statement and its significance.
Provide a final reflection on the poem's impact or enduring relevance.

Tips on how to write a poetry analysis essay

Embrace your emotional response. Poetry often evokes strong emotions. Don't shy away from expressing your personal feelings and reactions. Your emotional response can be a valuable entry point for deeper analysis.

Engage with the poet's background. Research the poet's life, experiences, and historical context. Understanding the poet's background can illuminate the poem's inspiration and add depth to your analysis.

Draw connections to other works. Compare the poem with other works by the same poet or poets from the same literary movement. Identifying common themes and stylistic choices can enrich your interpretation.

Visualize the poem. Create a visual representation of the imagery and structure. Sketching or visual aids can help you better understand the poem's patterns and symbolism.

Collaborate with peers. Discuss the piece of poetry with classmates or friends and exchange ideas. Engaging in group discussions can offer fresh perspectives and lead to new insights.

Apply real-life experiences. Relate the themes or messages of the poem to real-life situations or historical events. This approach can make the poem's meaning more relatable and relevant.

Challenge conventions. Feel free to challenge conventional interpretations or literary analysis norms. A fresh perspective can lead to a more unique and compelling essay.

In conclusion

By carefully examining the poem's structure, language, imagery, and themes, we unlock its secrets and profoundly understand the poet's intentions. Writing a poetry analysis essay allows us to explore our interpretations, connect with the poet's voice, and engage with the timeless and universal truths that poetry conveys.

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Written by Steven Robinson

Steven Robinson is an academic writing expert with a degree in English literature. His expertise, patient approach, and support empower students to express ideas clearly. On EduBirdie's blog, he provides valuable writing guides on essays, research papers, and other intriguing topics. Enjoys chess in free time.

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22 Poetry Prompts to Help You Write Your Next Great Poem

While there is so much joy associated with writing, there is one pitfall that we all fall prey to—the dreaded writer’s block. It can strike at any moment and fill our hearts with frustration. But never fear! Sometimes, all we need is a small spark of inspiration. Poetry prompts can be a great way to get the creative juices flowing after a dry spell.

If nothing else, it might be what prompts you to start putting pen to paper again. Even if you’re not always sure where a prompt or writing session will lead, try and choose a prompt or two and just start writing. It might start you down the path to your next major breakthrough.

I hope these prompts help you focus and get excited about your poetic journey. Happy writing:

1. Choose one of your five senses. Write a poem that focuses on your chosen sense.

2. write a poem inspired by a color., 3. write a poem based on something that happened to you this week. it could be something life-changing or something seemingly ordinary. tune into that moment and paint a story about it., 4. listen to one of your favorite songs and write a poem directly after based on the feelings and emotions it brought about in you. let music inspire poetry., 5. write about a lesson that you recently learned. , 6. think of a friend or family member who has played a huge role in your life. write a poem about the relationship. , 7. write a poem about the life advice you would give to your younger self. , 8. write about traveling—whether it’s taking a road trip or flying in a plane or spending the afternoon on a train. write about the feelings you experience while being en route to somewhere new or familiar. , 9. recall a favorite holiday memory and tell your readers about it. , 10. create a gallery of your heart. take readers on a guided tour of what they might see there. , 11. recall one of the strangest dreams you’ve ever had and write about how it made you feel or write it out in as much detail as you can remember. , 12. write about a time that your illusions of someone or something were shattered. , 13. write about a favorite childhood toy, movie, book, etc. and tie it back to the present day. , 14. you are renovating a home. imagine that you are this home. what serves as your foundation what are you working on fixing what needs to be replaced and what makes your house a home describe., 15. write a haiku inspired by an element of nature. (haikus are three lines. the first line has five syllables, the second line has seven syllables, and the third line has five syllables)., 16. write a poem where you are observing another time period as a detached observer. (this could be a time from your past or from another decade or era)., 17. write a poem from the perspective of your favorite pet. , 18. imagine that you switched places with someone for a day. (like in freaky friday). what would you learn from the experience , 19. write a piece about body positivity, as though you are looking into the mirror and speaking to your reflection. , 20. if you could freeze time in one moment of your life, what would it be write a poem in honor of that memory. , 21. imagine you are on a run through nature. describe your inner dialogue as you run through the trail at sunrise. what do you reflect on as you run , 22. has there ever been a time when you felt like the hero of your life how about the villain write yourself as the hero, then write yourself as the villain. paint the perspectives of each and explore the different aspects of the story from each lens. .

Have you written a masterpiece yet? I’m sure you are well on your way to a creative breakthrough. I hope you enjoyed this exercise and the opportunity to try your hand at a few different topics.

Feel free to leave your poetry prompted poems in the comments for us to check out together. Also, if you have any prompts you would like to share, leave us a comment and let us know. Nothing is better than coming together as a group and inspiring some great writing!

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Poetry & Poets

Explore the beauty of poetry – discover the poet within

How To Write A Poetry Essay

Introduction

Poetry is the art of expressing emotions, ideas and thoughts in a creative way. Writing about poetry may be difficult for some people as it involves not just understanding the text, but also interpreting its implications. The key to writing a successful poetry essay is to explore what the poem means to you and finding out what the main themes and ideas of the poem are. Through this process, you will be able to take a deep dive into the analysis of the poem. In this article, we will provide an overview of how to write an effective poetry essay.

Preparing for Poetry Analysis

Before diving into writing your essay, it is essential to familiarize yourself with the basics of poetry. Firstly, it is important to read through the poem and examine the poem’s structure, meter, and rhyme scheme. These elements often give insight into the mood and themes of the poem. Additionally, it may also be useful to identify the poem’s speaker and its written form. It is only once these components are understood that you can begin to analyze the poem in greater detail. Secondly, it is helpful to examine the choice of words used in the poem. The poet’s use of vocabulary can reveal clues about his feelings and thoughts on the subject. Furthermore, you may also want to focus on particular words that are commonly used in the poem, as their inclusion may be used to convey a specific hidden meaning. For example, if the poem often uses the words ‘free’ and ‘liberty’, then it may be a way to express the theme of freedom.

Including Evidence in Your Essay

In order to effectively analyze a poem, it is important that your essay includes evidence from the poem that reinforce your argument. It is crucial to include specific examples of passages, lines, or words that you feel demonstrate the poem’s underlying themes or messages. Moreover, you may also want to explicitly state the effect these examples have on the meaning of the poem. For instance, the poet’s deliberate use of sad words to communicate grief.

Making Connections

In addition to carefully analysing the poem, it is also important to make meaningful connections between different aspects of the poem. This may involve connecting literary elements, such as images, symbols, and allusions, to a broader theme or idea. These connections can be used to develop your understanding of the poem and illustrate how different elements come together to form a more holistic interpretation.

Invoking Imagery to Interpret the Poem

A great way to interpret the poem is to compare its themes to an image or painting. This way, you can visualize the poem’s message and identify its different facets. If done correctly, this method can provide you with an even deeper understanding of the poem’s true meaning.

Creating Your Thesis Statement

Having read and analyzed the poem, it is time to develop your thesis statement. This is the statement that outlines your analysis and interpretation of the poem. A strong thesis statement should concisely sum up the poem’s main idea and your interpretation of it. It should also steer clear of being too subjective or judgmental.

Proofreading and Editing

After finishing your essay, it is essential to proofread and edit it to refine it further. You may want to read the essay out loud to identify any grammatical errors or inconsistencies. Furthermore, you may also want to review your essay to ensure that your argument is well-articulated and your analysis is accurate.

Arguing Your Viewpoint

For a successful poetry essay, it is important to provide your own subjective viewpoint on the poem. Feel free to use first-person narrative and provide your opinion on a particular element of the poem. This can help to create a sense of connection between the reader and the poem, as well as adding emotional triggers to your essay.

Using the Active Voice

Another key rule to consider when writing a poetry essay is to give preference to the active voice over the passive voice when expressing your ideas. This will enhance the clarity of your essay and make it easier for the reader to understand your analysis. Using the active voice will help to make your argument more convincing, as readers can clearly understand how and why you arrived at a certain conclusion.

Expanding on the Topic

Evaluating the poem’s context.

In order to get the most out of your poetry essay, you should consider researching and evaluating the poem’s context. This includes understanding the poet’s biography, their motivations for writing the poem, and any political or social movements that the poem may have been influenced by. By taking the poem’s context into account, you can gain an even better insight into the work and develop an even more thorough interpretation of the poem.

Exploring Different Perspectives

When writing your essay, it can be helpful to explore different non-academic perspectives that can help give you a more comprehensive understanding of the poem. Engaging with other interpretations and opinions can help you to get an even better idea of what the poem is trying to say. Additionally, it can also provide you with insight into the cultural significance of the poem.

Considering the Poem’s Aesthetic Elements

When analyzing a poem, it is important to consider the poem’s aesthetic elements, such as its sound, rhythm, and meter. These aspects of a poem often convey the poem’s true meaning and can provide deeper insight into the poem’s themes and ideas. Additionally, they can also help you to better identify and convey the poem’s effect on the reader.

Incorporating Relevant Data

To further bolster your argument and make your essay more convincing, you may also want to cite relevant data and sources. This includes any papers or studies on the poem, as well as any quotes from experts on the poem. By including this data, your essay will appear more credible and will be more likely to convince your reader.

Adding Your Own Insights and Analysis

The final step to writing your poetry essay is to include your own insights and analysis. This is important for providing your essay with its unique voice and is essential for providing a unique argument. Using your knowledge of the poem, provide the reader with a summary of your own ideas and opinions on the poem. By doing so, you can make your essay more relatable and engaging to the reader.

Minnie Walters

Minnie Walters is a passionate writer and lover of poetry. She has a deep knowledge and appreciation for the work of famous poets such as William Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and many more. She hopes you will also fall in love with poetry!

Writing About Poetry

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Writing about poetry can be one of the most demanding tasks that many students face in a literature class. Poetry, by its very nature, makes demands on a writer who attempts to analyze it that other forms of literature do not. So how can you write a clear, confident, well-supported essay about poetry? This handout offers answers to some common questions about writing about poetry.

What's the Point?

In order to write effectively about poetry, one needs a clear idea of what the point of writing about poetry is. When you are assigned an analytical essay about a poem in an English class, the goal of the assignment is usually to argue a specific thesis about the poem, using your analysis of specific elements in the poem and how those elements relate to each other to support your thesis.

So why would your teacher give you such an assignment? What are the benefits of learning to write analytic essays about poetry? Several important reasons suggest themselves:

To help you learn to make a text-based argument. That is, to help you to defend ideas based on a text that is available to you and other readers. This sharpens your reasoning skills by forcing you to formulate an interpretation of something someone else has written and to support that interpretation by providing logically valid reasons why someone else who has read the poem should agree with your argument. This isn't a skill that is just important in academics, by the way. Lawyers, politicians, and journalists often find that they need to make use of similar skills.
To help you to understand what you are reading more fully. Nothing causes a person to make an extra effort to understand difficult material like the task of writing about it. Also, writing has a way of helping you to see things that you may have otherwise missed simply by causing you to think about how to frame your own analysis.
To help you enjoy poetry more! This may sound unlikely, but one of the real pleasures of poetry is the opportunity to wrestle with the text and co-create meaning with the author. When you put together a well-constructed analysis of the poem, you are not only showing that you understand what is there, you are also contributing to an ongoing conversation about the poem. If your reading is convincing enough, everyone who has read your essay will get a little more out of the poem because of your analysis.

What Should I Know about Writing about Poetry?

Most importantly, you should realize that a paper that you write about a poem or poems is an argument. Make sure that you have something specific that you want to say about the poem that you are discussing. This specific argument that you want to make about the poem will be your thesis. You will support this thesis by drawing examples and evidence from the poem itself. In order to make a credible argument about the poem, you will want to analyze how the poem works—what genre the poem fits into, what its themes are, and what poetic techniques and figures of speech are used.

What Can I Write About?

Theme: One place to start when writing about poetry is to look at any significant themes that emerge in the poetry. Does the poetry deal with themes related to love, death, war, or peace? What other themes show up in the poem? Are there particular historical events that are mentioned in the poem? What are the most important concepts that are addressed in the poem?

Genre: What kind of poem are you looking at? Is it an epic (a long poem on a heroic subject)? Is it a sonnet (a brief poem, usually consisting of fourteen lines)? Is it an ode? A satire? An elegy? A lyric? Does it fit into a specific literary movement such as Modernism, Romanticism, Neoclassicism, or Renaissance poetry? This is another place where you may need to do some research in an introductory poetry text or encyclopedia to find out what distinguishes specific genres and movements.

Versification: Look closely at the poem's rhyme and meter. Is there an identifiable rhyme scheme? Is there a set number of syllables in each line? The most common meter for poetry in English is iambic pentameter, which has five feet of two syllables each (thus the name "pentameter") in each of which the strongly stressed syllable follows the unstressed syllable. You can learn more about rhyme and meter by consulting our handout on sound and meter in poetry or the introduction to a standard textbook for poetry such as the Norton Anthology of Poetry . Also relevant to this category of concerns are techniques such as caesura (a pause in the middle of a line) and enjambment (continuing a grammatical sentence or clause from one line to the next). Is there anything that you can tell about the poem from the choices that the author has made in this area? For more information about important literary terms, see our handout on the subject.

Figures of speech: Are there literary devices being used that affect how you read the poem? Here are some examples of commonly discussed figures of speech:

metaphor: comparison between two unlike things
simile: comparison between two unlike things using "like" or "as"
metonymy: one thing stands for something else that is closely related to it (For example, using the phrase "the crown" to refer to the king would be an example of metonymy.)
synecdoche: a part stands in for a whole (For example, in the phrase "all hands on deck," "hands" stands in for the people in the ship's crew.)
personification: a non-human thing is endowed with human characteristics
litotes: a double negative is used for poetic effect (example: not unlike, not displeased)
irony: a difference between the surface meaning of the words and the implications that may be drawn from them

Cultural Context: How does the poem you are looking at relate to the historical context in which it was written? For example, what's the cultural significance of Walt Whitman's famous elegy for Lincoln "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed" in light of post-Civil War cultural trends in the U.S.A? How does John Donne's devotional poetry relate to the contentious religious climate in seventeenth-century England? These questions may take you out of the literature section of your library altogether and involve finding out about philosophy, history, religion, economics, music, or the visual arts.

What Style Should I Use?

It is useful to follow some standard conventions when writing about poetry. First, when you analyze a poem, it is best to use present tense rather than past tense for your verbs. Second, you will want to make use of numerous quotations from the poem and explain their meaning and their significance to your argument. After all, if you do not quote the poem itself when you are making an argument about it, you damage your credibility. If your teacher asks for outside criticism of the poem as well, you should also cite points made by other critics that are relevant to your argument. A third point to remember is that there are various citation formats for citing both the material you get from the poems themselves and the information you get from other critical sources. The most common citation format for writing about poetry is the Modern Language Association (MLA) format .

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Writing Prompts & Exercises

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The Time Is Now offers three new and original writing prompts each week to help you stay committed to your writing practice throughout the year. We also curate a list of essential books on writing —both the newly published and the classics—that we recommend for guidance and inspiration. Whether you’re struggling with writer’s block, looking for a fresh topic, or just starting to write, our archive of writing prompts has what you need. Need a starter pack? Check out our Writing Prompts for Beginners.

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Counterfactual

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In an interview by Margaret Ross for the Art of Nonfiction series published in the Summer 2024 issue of the Paris Review , author and Harvard University professor Elaine Scarry says, “I see my writing on imagination and on war as continuous. Or rather, the two subjects are essentially locked in combat, because the act of inflicting injury or pain is really a willful aping of imagination, turning it upside down and appropriating it.” Write a lyric essay that braids together two subjects: Use the imagination or the artistic process as one topic, and then choose another subject that may seem “locked in combat” with your ideas around creativity, perhaps one more adjacent to pain or distress. What kind of truth can be coaxed to the surface when you think about the connections between them?

Story Within a Story

In the new horror film The Exorcism directed and cowritten by Joshua John Miller, Russell Crowe plays an actor who stars as a priest in a horror film, one that largely resembles the 1973 classic film The Exorcist , whose young priest was played by Miller’s father. This week take a page from this jumble of connections and nested narratives, and write a short story that contains within it another short story. The nested story could be something one of your characters is writing, or perhaps a story one of your characters comes across in a book. Decide whether to include some or all of the text of the nested story inside your larger story. You may want to play around with oppositional genres, such as humor and tragedy, or make use of similar plot points for an eerie effect.

A Wild Life

Zillow Gone Wild is a popular Instagram account, and new HGTV reality TV show, that highlights particularly strange, curious, extreme, or otherwise unusual homes listed on the real estate website Zillow. Even for those who are not actively looking to buy or sell a home, the descriptions and photographs on these listings can serve as an inspiring portal, sparking a curiosity about how others express themselves through their homes, and how one’s own life could be different in a new environment with an idiosyncratic character of its own. Browse through some wild real estate listings online and write a persona poem from the point of view of an imagined inhabitant of the home of your choice. Consider what kind of assumptions or preconceived notions you might be bringing to the persona, and how you can upend expectations.

Are you shoe obsessed? Do you prioritize fashion over comfort, seeking out the latest trends, or do you hold tight to a long-held personal style? This week, look through old photos and your closet to jot down notes about the shoes you’ve worn over the years—sneakers, slip-ons, boots, flats, heels, flip-flops—and how the elements of texture, color, and function have impacted your choices. Write a personal essay that traces how your shoe priorities have evolved over the years, perhaps connecting some favorite past pairs to certain phases of your life—places you’ve lived, fads you’ve endured, jobs or hobbies you’ve had. Unpack the specific memories associated with how you were shoed.

A Solitary Sentence

In a 2012 interview for the Guardian , Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai explained his predilection for writing extremely long sentences that manage to endure for dozens of pages: “This characteristic, very classical, short sentence—at the end with a dot—this is artificial, this is only a custom, this is perhaps helpful for the reader, but for only one reason, that the readers in the last few thousand years have learned that a short sentence is easier to understand.” For Krasznahorkai, the long sentence extends beyond the desire to reflect the natural continuousness of human speech, but to also express the speaker’s existential drive, a seemingly overwhelming desire to communicate, to be empowered to say their piece. Write a short story that consists of a single sentence, using any punctuation you’d like but saving the period until the very end. How does this constraint affect your story’s themes?

Defeat Is Inevitable

“In the end, I suppose, defeat is inevitable, / the closing of something once delicately propped / open,” writes Dawn Lundy Martin in her poem “From Which the Thing Is Made,” which appears in her collection Instructions for the Lovers , out today from Nightboat. With each line of the poem, Martin dives deeper into the connection between the narrator and their mother, and how her absence is still felt in the body of the narrator. “Even I can’t let go, can’t sift her being (that part / of her that’s her) from my hands,” writes Martin. This week, start a poem with Martin’s first line: “In the end, I suppose, defeat is inevitable…” What memories and imagery come to mind when you think of defeat or of something closing?

The Longest Day

This year’s summer solstice arrives in the Northern Hemisphere on June 20, marking it the longest day, and shortest night, of the year. And yet, no matter the exact number of daylight or nighttime hours measured out, any day can feel like a very long day, just as any night can end in the blink of an eye. Write a two-part lyric essay in which the first part details one long summer day you’ve experienced, and the second part focuses on one short summer night. For the day that seemed to last forever, did it drag on and on, producing exasperation, or did the hours ooze dreamily and pleasurably? For the night that whizzed by, was there nonstop action that was over before you knew it?

Domestication

In an interview published in Salon, Rosemary Mosco, author of A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching: Getting to Know the World’s Most Misunderstood Bird (Workman Publishing, 2021), reflects on the historical connections between pigeons and people, and recounts a process of domestication, obsolescence, and abandonment. “The city pigeons around us…were domesticated by humans a really long time ago,” says Mosco. “They were really bred to be good at living near us. And then, we forgot, and now they keep hanging around us. And we’re like, ‘why are they here?’” Write a short story that involves an encounter or situation with a domesticated animal, whether a pet, livestock, or one wandering the streets. Think about the wild ancestors of this animal, and how they’ve become entwined with humans and civilization. How might you connect philosophical ideas around domestication with other larger themes of your story?

“We tend to treat odor in general as a sort of taboo,” writes Scott Sayare in a New York Times Magazine article about a woman who discovered she could smell Parkinson’s disease, in some cases over a dozen years before medical diagnosis. “Modern doctors are trained to diagnose by inspection, palpation, percussion and auscultation; ‘inhalation’ is not on the list, and social norms would discourage it if it were.” This week, focus your attention on your sense of smell as you go about your days, perhaps even ignoring social norms as you inhale all the odors around you. Then, write a poem that focuses solely, or primarily, on smell—perhaps juxtaposing scents that are in your everyday life now and those from a more distant past.

A Question of Belonging: Crónicas (Archipelago Books, 2024) by the Argentine writer Hebe Uhart, who died in 2018, translated from the Spanish by Anna Vilner, contains over two dozen crónicas—a form of narrative journalism popularized in Latin America that is characterized by short, informal musings about everyday topics and observations. In her introduction to the book, Mariana Enríquez notes Uhart’s lack of pretension in her chosen subjects, from what she observed around her to the locals with whom she conversed. “Her fascination with language is not limited to the spoken: She roams around cities and towns taking note of shop names, ads, and graffiti.…” Jot down intriguing or amusing fragments of language you see and hear as you go about your day, perhaps during your commute or while watching your favorite TV show. Write a series of short musings based on your observations, noting any humor or insights gleaned from contemporary language and what it reveals about our current times.

Head This Way

Ayşegül Savaş’s third novel, The Anthropologists , forthcoming in July from Bloomsbury, is narrated by Asya, one half of a young couple setting out to build a new life together in a foreign city. While they solidify friendships, search for an apartment, and accommodate visiting relatives, Asya begins a documentary project. Each of the novel’s vignette titles reference anthropological concepts: Notions of Loyalty, Child-Rearing, Native Tongue, Courtship, Gift Exchange, Division of Labor, Principles of Kinship, and Forms of Enchantment. As Asya reflects on anthropological distance and lenses, these headings raise questions about the conventions, expectations, and routines that constitute a life. What makes a life legible—and to whom? Write a short story with subheadings providing insight or an alternative perspective on scenes. How might they produce additional layers of complexity and ambiguity?

Coming Down Hard

“The sun had just gone out / and I was walking three miles to get home. / I wanted to die. / I couldn’t think of words and I had no future / and I was coming down hard on everything.” In Linda Gregg’s poem “New York Address,” which appears in her retrospective collection, All of It Singing: New and Selected Poems (Graywolf Press, 2008), the speaker recounts bleak existential angst. Despite the pain and darkness, there are glimmers of light. In the second half of the poem, questions are stubbornly answered with snappy, tidy pacing: “Yes I hate dark. No I love light. Yes I won’t speak. / No I will write.” Write a poem that goes all in on angst, channeling a time that felt overwhelmingly uncertain and full of trepidation. How can you experiment with sound and diction to gently steer the dramatic toward the life-affirming?

Attentiveness

Nearly fifty years ago, the writer George Perec spent three days sitting behind a café window in Place Saint-Sulpice in Paris recording everything he saw. In his short book, An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris , his observations of mundane occurrences and objects often considered unnoteworthy—passersby, cars, buses, pigeons, signs, and slogans—are documented. This week situate yourself in one spot, perhaps in your home or workplace, or in a public space like a park, busy crossroad, commercial area, library, or café. Then, jot down the objects and behavior you see, and the snippets of conversation you hear. Write a lyric essay composed of these notes, trying to avoid interpretations or analysis. Taken together, how do your observations create a portrayal of a specific time or place? Pay particular attention to how one observation might lead to another, and to potential rhythms and repetitions.

Power Couple

The 2023 thriller film Fair Play , written and directed by Chloe Domont, follows the lives of a young, newly engaged couple, Luke and Emily, who are colleagues working as analysts in the cutthroat world of high finance in New York. The film focuses on the progression of their relationship, which has been kept hidden from their hedge fund office, and the bitter disintegration of their happiness after a promotion that was initially rumored to go to Luke is unexpectedly bestowed upon Emily, which situates him as a subordinate to his wife within a misogynistic workplace. Write a short story that revolves around an occurrence that catalyzes a shift in the power dynamic between two main characters who have a close relationship. What are the initial responses, and does the transformation happen suddenly or gradually? Are there gender, generational, or other cultural issues that play a role?

Organic Insinuations

“All too often, on a ‘poetry scene,’ people prioritise ‘subject matter,’” says John Burnside in a 2023 interview about his writing process by Jesse Nathan published on McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. “I am sure that, as I am working, environmental concerns insinuate their way into the content of a poem organically, as other concerns will—but I would never start from there.” Inspired by the late Scottish poet, who died at the age of sixty-nine on May 29, write a poem that springs not from a predetermined topic or subject matter, but instead allows you to “trust in the sounds, the rhythms that come out of the day-to-day, the sheer immediacy and truth of the quotidian…and the images that lead, sometimes via fairly roundabout paths, to metaphor.” Later, as you reread and revise, what do you discover is the subject of your poem? What might have organically insinuated itself into your poem?

The maintenance or restoration of native plant and animal species has long been at the heart of many ecological and conservation projects, and has historically been a focus of land and environmental stewardship principles held by native and first peoples all over the world. But what if a beloved plant or animal is considered invasive, like the palm trees of Los Angeles or the cattle of Texas? What are the effects or consequences of centuries of existence with this invasive species in a particular locale? This week reflect on the notion of belonging—what are various places and times when you have felt a strong sense of belonging, and situations when you did not feel you belonged? Consider your own perspectives and responses when you encounter someone or something else that seems invasive or does not belong.

In Stephen King’s 1983 novel, Pet Sematary , a doctor moves into a remote house in Maine with his wife, two young children, and their pet cat, and learns from a neighbor about an ancient burial ground nearby cursed by a malevolent spirit which gave it power to reanimate those buried there. This is put to the test first by the family cat, and then by members of the family who die throughout the course of King’s horror story. While each formerly dead being is returned to the land of the living, they don’t come back quite the same. Write a story in which a creature or person returns from the dead, either in actuality or under circumstances in which their reappearance feels as if they are “back from the dead.” What familiar traits remain the same and what is disconcertingly different? Is their return ultimately for the better or the worse?

“I told a friend about a spill at the grocery store, which—the words ‘conveyor belt’ vanishing midsentence—took place on a ‘supermarket treadmill,’” writes Madeleine Schwartz in a recent essay published by New York Times Magazine about her experience of negotiating with and toggling between the French and English languages after moving from New York to Paris. In the piece, Schwartz notes that as she became more comfortable with living and thinking in French, she noticed a blurring of her linguistic capabilities, including a muddling of her articulative abilities in English. Think about a time or situation when words have failed you, or you’ve drawn a blank as to the mot juste. Write a poem that traces or enacts a loss of language, perhaps using invented words, phrases, and spellings or experimenting with font sizes, line breaks, and spacing.

Edible Memories

Many foods, flavors, and dishes hold a wellspring of emotional associations because they remind us of loved ones, habits and traditions, specific locales, and a different time of our lives when we were different people. Write a series of flash nonfiction pieces this week with each segment focusing on an edible item that evokes particularly resonant memories for you. You might begin by jotting down lists of foods you ate regularly growing up—breakfasts, school lunches, vending machine go-tos, favorite fast-food joints, diners, late night spots, home-cooked specialties—as well as a few momentous meals. Who are the people you associate with each one? Aside from taste and smell, consider the surrounding environment, atmospheric sounds, time of year, and who you were at that point in your life.

Wheels and Nails

While the American proverb “the squeaky wheel gets the grease” may be one you’ve heard time and again, often in reference to the idea that whoever raises or vocalizes a criticism the loudest will be appeased, there is a Japanese saying that translates to “the nail that sticks out gets hammered down,” which points to the positives of conformity in order to maintain a productive and humble society. It can also refer to putting someone who has become too successful back down in their place. Write a story in which your main character diverges from a group of people, and sticks their neck out, so to speak. Perhaps they vocalize a contrary perspective, protest something they feel is unjust, or simply present themselves in an unconventional manner. What are the consequences? Does your story lean toward one proverbial lesson or the other, or does the conclusion demonstrate more ambiguity?

Night at the Museum

If you could spend a night at any museum, which would you choose, and why? The French publisher Editions Stock has a series of books that begins with this premise—each author selects a museum, arrangements are made for an overnight stay, and a book is written about the experience. In Jakuta Alikavazovic’s Like a Sky Inside , translated from the French by Daniel Levin Becker, she spends a night at the Louvre in Paris, where childhood memories of visits with her father are vividly recalled. “From March 7 to 8, 2020, I spent the night in the Louvre, alone. Alone and at the same time anything but,” writes Alikavazovic. Write a poem that imagines a night at a museum of your choosing, anywhere in the world. What memories will you excavate from this imagined, solitary experience?

Chosen Family

Although the origin of the term is unknown and can be defined in many ways, a chosen family is made up of a group of people who choose to embrace, nurture, and support each other despite conventional understandings of biological or marital relationships. Oftentimes a chosen family is formed to take the place of a biological family, however, in some cases, these relationships are formed to expand a family. Write a personal essay about a relationship you have with a chosen family member. How did you first meet? Was there a particular incident that catalyzed what would become an inextricable bond? Has your commitment to each other been tested in ways big or small? Reflect on past memories and experiences you have had with this special person and how your relationship has evolved over the years.

Kingdom of the Planet

In the 1968 science fiction film Planet of the Apes , which is based on French author Pierre Boulle’s 1963 novel and has spawned several sequels and a recent reboot, a crew of astronauts crash-lands on a planet ruled by apes who have developed an advanced and hierarchical civilization, complete with systems of governance, labor, scientific research, and a military force. In this far-off place, humans have been reduced to mute primitive beings who are subjugated and kept captive as workers for the primates. Write a speculative story that takes place in another universe with a premise revolving around a role reversal. What are the rules and governing structures of the society that you invent? You might decide to approach your narrative with a tone of horror, satire, or comedy to emphasize your perspective on stereotypical assumptions and social expectations.

Another Country

“I love these raw moist dawns with / a thousand birds you hear but can’t / quite see in the mist. / My old alien body is a foreigner / struggling to get into another country. / The loon call makes me shiver. / Back at the cabin I see a book / and am not quite sure what that is.” In these eight lines that comprise Jim Harrison’s poem “Another Country,” which appears in his final collection, Dead Man’s Float (Copper Canyon Press, 2016), the late poet moves between observations about a natural outdoor setting and the speaker’s own bodily presence, arriving in the final two lines at a sentiment that expresses a feeling of defamiliarization at the seemingly mundane sight of a book. This week write a poem that explores the concept of being so absorbed in one environment or circumstance that to behold a different scene is like traveling to a strange and unknown realm.

Self-Healing

A recent study in Scientific Reports journal revealed that, for possibly the first time, a nonhuman wild animal was seen using plant medicine to heal an active wound. In a rainforest in Indonesia, a Sumatran orangutan was observed ripping off leaves from a climbing vine plant, chewing them, and applying the plant sap to treat a wound on his face, which then healed after a few days. Write a personal essay on the theme of self-healing. Think about experiences when you’ve witnessed another person perform this task, or particularly resonant memories that pertain to your own past behavior. What are the primary emotions present throughout this process? What instances of self-treatment or self-medication in film, art, or literature created an impression on you?

About Our Writing Prompts

What is a writing prompt and how do you use one? Whether you find yourself in front of a blank page or stuck in a work-in-progress, writing prompts can offer a spark that ignites your creative thinking and can lead to new writing. Prompts offer guidance, fresh ideas, and direction for writers of all levels of experience. First, choose a prompt for the genre in which you’d like to write, then carefully read it and consider what it is asking you to think about. It could be a specific setting, a writing technique, or an element of an imagined character; a specific poem, story, essay, song, book, or film from which you might take inspiration; or a current event or a topical theme. A writing prompt is filled with endless possibilities—and there is no wrong way to use one to generate new writing!

What makes our writing prompts unique? We have an archive of over 2,000 prompts, all original and offered here and in our weekly newsletter . You’ll find a variety of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction prompts—some inspired by recent and classic literature and other forms of art, current events, and writing practices, and others that offer guidance for a particular form, including sonnets, erasure poetry, flash fiction, lyric essays, and more. For more than fifty years, Poets & Writers has supported creative writers with trustworthy information and inspiration, and our weekly prompts provide a regular dose of encouragement and motivation.

What are the benefits of using writing prompts? Writing prompts can help you get unstuck if you’re in a rut and the ideas aren’t flowing. But even if you’re not experiencing writer’s block, writing prompts can offer a fresh take or a new approach to a work-in-progress. Writing prompts can also provide the motivation to experiment with a new form, try out a new genre, or learn about other writing techniques. And writing prompts are an invaluable tool for teachers who want to encourage and inspire their writing students.

What is this list of Best Books? Best Books for Writers is a list of essential books for creative writers that we curate to support your writing practice. Every week, we add a book (whether new or a classic) with a synopsis and highlights. Included are books on the writing life, anthologies of craft essays, collections of lectures, practical guides with writing exercises, and more.

Poetry writing prompts Every Tuesday we post a new poetry prompt to guide you in your practice. Get to know the work of contemporary and classic poets, as well as a variety of poetic forms.

Fiction writing prompts Every Wednesday we post a new fiction prompt to spark your imagination. Take inspiration from recently published short stories and novels, and of course, the classics.

Creative nonfiction writing prompts Every Thursday we post a new creative nonfiction prompt to help your exploration of this ever-changing genre. These prompts include information and inspiration for a variety of essays as well as memoirs. Discover new writers and their craft, and fresh ways to generate writing inspired by your life.

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Poetry Essay Examples

We have 960 free papers on poetry for you, essay examples, essay topics, harlem by langston hughes: a literary exploration.

Harlem Renaissance

Introduction In the large reign of literary, a few works have power, to encapsulate essence of era and cause the enormous amount of emotions for a reader. “Harlem,” the poem reserved famous Langston Hughes stands as a sharp testament to creative brilliance that can appear from crossing of social comment and artistic expression. As an…

Intricacies of Emotion and Identity: Unveiling the Depths of a Poetic Journey

In the kingdom of literary research, there is a poem, that bottoms in the messes of human emotions and experience. As we risk in the world of poetic interpretation, we run into a piece that philosophizes with deep and complicated themes. The context within the limits of this poem appears, – then, that one marked…

Decoding the Enigma of Lenore: Unveiling the Mystery in “The Raven”

Introduction Edgar Allan Poe’s timeless poem “The Raven” is a haunting exploration of grief, longing, and despair. Central to the poem’s emotional turmoil is the enigmatic figure of Lenore, whose name is echoed through the verses as a refrain of sorrow. Unraveling the identity and significance of Lenore is central to understanding the poem’s thematic…

A Comparison of the Similarities and Differences Between “How Do I Love Thee?” and “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?”

William Shakespeare

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet “How Do I Love Thee?” was published in 1850 in the collection The Sonnets From the Portuguese (Avery and Stott). The predominant themes of the poem are the love and the admiration the speaker feels for the unnamed lover. Similarly, the main themes of William Shakespeare’s poem “Shall I Compare Thee…

An Overview of the Poem To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell

The purpose of Andrew Marvell’s poem “To His Coy Mistress” is the capture of love true love, something that is worldwide. Courtship is important today as it was in the 1600’s. The character in the poem, possibly Andrew Marvell himself, wants sexual relations, perhaps as an act of love, with the woman in the title,…

An Analysis “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes Research Paper

Langston Hughes represented the African American culture in his poems, describing his utmost feelings towards America during the racial segregation era. Hughes’ use of cultural slang was inspired by the places he lived, which revealed the despairing tone the African Americans felt during this time period. As a result, his poems often shared the same…

Lost Love of the Narrator in “The Raven” by Poe Essay

An unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that something dangerous Is likely to cause Pain or threat to one’s self. This emotion just described is fear. Edgar Allan Poe captured the imagination of people around the world with his eerie, perplexing, distressing, and unsettling poems and stories. He had a life full struggles including neglect, death, and alcoholism….

“The Odyssey” by Homer Essay

The way society functions throughout history have been heavily influenced by The Odyssey, and more recently To Kill A Mockingbird. The Odyssey, by Homer, is about a man named Odysseus who is returning home to Ithaca after fighting heroically in the Trojan War. This epic poem tells the journey that took place as he was…

The Theme of Revenge in Shakespeare’s Hamlet Research Paper

Passionately recommended by a majority, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is deemed credible, intricate, and intellectual by readers of all professions. In fact, not only is Hamlet said to be Shakespeare’s greatest work, but it is often titled the greatest playwright of all time as well. Intermittently, however, do people recognize the fundamental flaws of the play….

How Does Keats Explore the Theme of Life and Art in Ode on a Grecian Urn?

John Keats, arguably the most talented and delightful writer of his time. His harrowingly beautiful writing often encompassed aspects of humanity and nature and what it means to be human. It is often argued that if he did not meet his untimely demise from a young age, he would have rivaled that of Shakespeare with…

Check a number of top-notch topics on Poetry written by our professionals

The Main Message in Robert Frost’s The Road not Taken

The War Against Oppression Represented in Claude Mckay’s if We Must Die

Th Kite Runner Vs. Where There’s a Wall: Comparative Essay on Character and Symbolism

Literary Analysis of Samuel Taylor Cleridge’s Poem “Love”

Human Suffering in The Poems of W.h. Auden

How The Horror is Constructed in Plath’s Poetry

From Objectified to Deified: an Exploration of Self in “Goblin Market”

Describing The Era in “The Lady of Shalott”

Youth’s Concept of Death in Wordsworth’s Poetry

Use of Figurative Language in Daffodils by William Wordsworth

True Love in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 and Adrienne Rich’s “Living in Sin”

The Use of Decay & Beauty in “Stella’s Birthday”

The Topic of Nature in William Wordsworth’s Poetry

The Symbolism and Verbs Usage in “When I Heard The Learn’d Astronomer”

The Role of The ‘Outsider’ in Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’

The Mood Swing Through Creative Language: Comparison of The Tyger and Men at Forty

The Love Poems of Rich, Marvell and Campion: Realism Vs. Idealization

The Importance of The Prologue: Poetry and Politics in “Confessio Amantis”

The Immortality of a Dead Cat

The Elements of Romantic Poetry in The Tyger by William Blake

The Crisis of Reading in Kafka and Eliot

The Connection of William Wordsworth’s Poetry with The Natural World

The Concept of Movement in The Odyssey, The Arabian Nights, and The Songs of The Troubadours and The Trobairitz

The Analysis of The Poem “In a Station of The Metro” by Ezra Pound

Sacrificing Relationships in a Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, The Love of My Life, and Eveline

Justice and Revenge in Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Imagery in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

Hilda Doolittle as a Modernist Poet

Harold Pinter’s Traditional Views on Language and Communication

Gender Roles in Little Red Cap by Carol Ann Duffy

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Essays About Poetry: 5 Interesting Examples and Topic Ideas

Let’s look at some examples of essays about poetry and topics to use as a starting point for your poetry essay.

To many, poetry is like a massage for the soul. Deep lyrics, interesting connections, and reflections on the commonalities that connect all humans make poetry a language that can connect us all.

From Walt Whitman to Edgar Allen Poe, poetry has long been recognized as a form of literary art. Different from visual art, poetry allows authors to use diction, rhyme scheme, and literary devices to paint a picture for the reader. Some poets work to describe physical scenes or events with great detail, while others use language that makes the emotion they’re describing feel real to the reader.

There are many different kinds of poetry, from epic poems to lyric essays. Each poet must decide what poetry format works best to get their point across to their reader. It’s important to note that popular styles of poetry change over time, and readers can expect a different style from an eighteenth-century poet than from a poem written from a modernist perspective.

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Examples Of Essays About Poetry

1. How Poetry Changed My Life By Shuly Cawood
2. 8 Reasons Why Poetry Is Good For The Soul By Kim Barkley
3. Top 20 Best Poets Of All Time By Bizhan Romani
4. Walt Whitman’s Guide To A Thriving Democracy By Mark Edmundson
5. “What Might Have Been And What Has Been”: How T. S. Eliot Looked At Lives By Lyndall Gordon

Topic Ideas For Essays About Poetry

1. who is the greatest american poet of all time, 2. what’s the purpose of poetry, 3. who was the most impactful poet of the twentieth century, 4. what makes a good poem, 5. social standing and poetry, 6. how does gender influence poetry, 7. working through trauma: how poetry and other creative writing can help, 8. poetry and social justice, 9. amanda gorman: who is the national youth poet laureate, 1. how poetry changed my life by shuly cawood.

It was Dr. David Citino who let me into his poetry writing seminar, Dr. David Citino who taught me how to take sentimentality out, Dr. David Citino who made it possible for me to stay in my journalism program and finish. Poetry kept me from quitting. This is one of the reasons that when National Poetry Month comes around every year, I can’t help but celebrate. Poetry did not just save me from quitting my journalism degree: poetry has been my constant companion and has guided me through upheavals, emotions, and changes and has helped me cope, understand, and let go.

Halfway through her master’s degree program in journalism, Cawood wanted to give up on her degree. She felt called to study poetry but knew that her journalism degree would give her the career opportunities she wanted after graduation. In this essay, Cawood celebrates Dr. Citino, her poetry professor, who helped give her the strength to finish her master’s program while learning more about the literature she loved.

2. 8 Reasons Why Poetry Is Good For The Soul By Kim Barkley

Have you ever sat there and not known what to write? Picking up poetry, reading through different excerpts from classic poets can blossom ideas you never knew existed. Reading and writing poetry makes you think of new ideas, but can also dramatically change the way you perceived old ones. It is a way to process experiences, visual descriptions, and emotions.

One of the most common arguments about poetry is that it doesn’t serve a literary purpose or educate readers on important topics. Barkley (rightfully) argues that this isn’t the case. Poetry can help children develop reading skills, open the imagination, and provide a safe space for authors to express difficult emotions that can be difficult to convey using traditional prose.

3. Top 20 Best Poets Of All Time By Bizhan Romani

Like art, poetry can be highly subjective as much of its worth lies in the emotional connection felt by its audience. It can therefore be difficult to judge poetry on its technical merits alone or to rank one poet against another. With that said, there are some poets that have made outstanding achievements in different forms of poetry, influenced literary movements, or left a lasting impression on pop culture.

Whether you’re looking for inspiration for your essay about poetry or you’re simply looking for a good jumping-off point to begin reading poetry in general, Romani’s list is an excellent compilation of some of the best poets of all time, including Sylvia Plath, Sappho, Edgar Allen Poe, Emily Dickinson, Pablo Neruda, and more.

4. Walt Whitman’s Guide To A Thriving Democracy By Mark Edmundson

“Song of Myself,” arguably Whitman’s greatest work, can be seen as a vision quest. In the original version, which had no title when it was published in 1855, in the first edition of Leaves of Grass, Whitman begins as an everyday workingman. He is “one of the roughs,” the tough, laboring type who is depicted on the book’s frontispiece —shirt open, hat tilted to the side, a calmly insouciant expression on his face. Through a series of poetic and spiritual encounters he gains in experience and wisdom to become a representative democratic individual, one who can show his countrymen and countrywomen the way to a thriving and joyous life.

One of the most well-known and well-respected poets in American history, Walt Whitman is known not just for his descriptive, personal poetic style but also for helping to shape pre-abolition America. In this essay, Edmundson doesn’t just dig into Whitman’s life as he wrote his most famous works—he also discusses how Ralph Waldo Emerson and William Wordsworth influenced Whitman. Poetry is full of both original ideas and borrowed thoughts, and Edmundson works to explain how Whitman’s greatness was due to both his literary prowess and his respect for other greats of his time.

5. “What Might Have Been And What Has Been”: How T. S. Eliot Looked At Lives By Lyndall Gordon

Eliot acknowledges the routine plot of existence—“in my beginning is my end”—but he will reverse this: “in my end is my beginning.” Though, of course, this looks to eternal life beyond death, he is thinking also of the life of his ancestor, Andrew Eliott, sailing in 1669 from East Coker, Somerset, across the North Atlantic—a dangerous, three-month voyage—to Salem, Massachusetts. Here is one model life: the risk taker who can begin again in middle age, who takes off for a new life in the New World. This risk mirrors Eliot’s move in middle age to remake his private life during the thirties.

Twentieth-century poet T. S. Eliot seemed to have visions of a perfect life. Since he died in the mid-1960s, many people have been surprised to discover proverbial skeletons in the closet of the poet’s earliest works, including elitism and anti-Semitism present in his early poetry. Today, many wonder how Eliot’s poetry has remained ever-present in today’s literary culture. In this essay, the author suggests that despite Eliot’s unacceptable beginnings, his words—specifically those about how people do not begin to reflect on a person’s life until their death—remain relevant to today’s society.

Exploring the greatest American poets can be fun to delve into different poets’ styles, including Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Edgar Allen Poe, and Sylvia Plath. As you explain your opinion on which poet you believe is the best of all time, explain why you feel the poet you chose stands out among their peers. You may also want to explore current poets and discuss whether it’s possible that the greatest American poet of all time is still alive and writing.

There’s no doubt about it—poetry is art. Musings on the purpose of poetry can provide solid insight into how words can portray emotion. If you decide to write about the purpose of poetry, be sure to explain to your readers how poetry has influenced your life. Share examples of poems that have had a significant impact on you, and explain how poetry contributes to the betterment of society. Be sure to include quotes from well-known poets about the purpose of their work and why they believe they’ve been able to impact society by sharing their creative gifts positively.

Essays about poetry: Who was the most impactful poet of the twentieth century?

Poetry doesn’t just provide poets with an outlet to express themselves—it can also have a significant impact on society and make the world a better place. In an essay on the most impactful poets of the twentieth century, please explain why you feel the poet you selected stands out from their peers. From Maya Angelou to e.e. cummings, you’ll have myriad opportunities to discuss poetic excellence. Explain how the poet you chose affected people, social movements, and history.

While this essay topic is subject to opinion, you can write about what you believe to be a good poem and provide examples from your favorites to support your thesis. You may feel that epic poems that allow the author to tell a detailed story are superior to other forms of poetry, or you may feel that lyrical essays that describe deep human truths are key to the literary world. No matter what argument you choose for what makes a good poem, support your argument with quotes, and don’t rely too much on stories of how a particular form of poetry affected you personally.

Poetry can break down barriers and, in many cases, provide a common language based on shared experiences from people of varying social standing. In your essay about social standing and poetry, explore how poetry has been used throughout history to connect people in various economic situations. You may also want to delve into how poetry can be used to help people understand the experiences of others (for example, explain how poetry can help a person who grew up in poverty express their experience to someone who grew up in a different situation).

Male and female poets both have incredibly valuable offerings to the literary world, and it can be interesting to explore themes of gender within poetry. In your essay on how gender influences poetry, explore both poems about gender and how the idea of gender can influence a poet’s work. Discuss how societal expectations that go with traditional gender roles are a theme in the work of many poets and how rallying against traditional gender roles can cause issues, both in a poet’s personal and professional life.

Writing can be therapeutic, and many people depend on journaling to help them process difficult and traumatic events. In an essay on how writing can help people work through trauma, dig into the latest research on therapeutic writing. You may also want to interview a therapist or counselor about how they use journaling or writing in their practice to help their clients work through difficult issues. If you have personally been able to work through trauma with the help of writing or journaling, it’s fine to use a personal anecdote to begin or end your essay. Be careful that you don’t lean on anecdotes to carry the body of your essay, however. You’ll want to provide research-driven proof that writing can be used to impact mental health positively.

Social justice movements have been used to change the course of history repeatedly. In many cases, poetry has served as an important part of social justice movements, providing a voice to those deemed voiceless. In your essay about poetry and social justice, talk about social justice movements both currently and in the past, and refer to poems that have worked to inform others about social issues and create positive change. In your essay, you can focus on one facet of social justice (such as racism or sexism) or look at how poetry and social justice interact with a wider lens.

Amanda Gorman: Who Is The National Youth Poet Laureate?

National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman took the world by storm with her poem The Hill We Climb, which she read aloud at President Biden’s 2021 inauguration ceremony. In your essay on Gorma, be sure to talk about her past, her education (a Harvard graduate), her rise to fame, and her goals for the future–she has her eyes set on a future presidential run.

If you are interested in learning more, check out our essay writing tips !

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Essays on Poetic Theory

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This section collects famous historical essays about poetry that have greatly influenced the art. Written by poets and critics from a wide range of historical, cultural, and aesthetic perspectives, the essays address the purpose of poetry, the possibilities of language, and the role of the poet in the world. They are arranged in chronological order.

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The Mind’s Own Place

Sargent is reported to have said to Renoir that he painted “cads in the park.” And Sargent was of course quite right.(1) The passion of the Impressionists to see, and...

Cracks in the Oracle Bone: Teaching Certain Contemporary Poems

I’m thrilled to be presenting a lecture honoring Judith Stronach to many colleagues and friends, and I’m grateful to Ray for publishing this series of lectures by poets—I feel fortunate...

Sight-Specific, Sound-Specific . . .

Performance is a bothersome word for writerly poets. Performance art, poetry slams, and the like have made the term synonymous with theatricality, a recourse to dramatic, declamatory, and other tactics...

Female Tradition as Feminist Innovation

Even at this late-postmodernist moment, when self-defined innovative poetry needs to build on a long tradition of previous self-defined innovative poetry, such poetry still defines itself in opposition to tradition....

Invisible Architecture

There is an invisible architecture often supporting the surface of the poem, interrupting the progress of the poem. It reaches into the poem in search for an identity with the...

The Poetics of Disobedience

For a long time I've seen my job as bound up with the necessity of noncompliance with pressures, dictates, atmospheres of, variously, poetic factions, society at large, my own past...

Use This Word in a Sentence: “Experimental”

In May 1998, the critic Michael Brenson organized a symposium at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York at which a number of people in the arts were asked to consider...

Someone is Writing a Poem

The society whose modernization has reached the stage of integrated spectacle is characterized by the combined effect of five principal factors: incessant technological renewal, integration of state and economy, generalized...

The Rejection of Closure

“The Rejection of Closure” was originally written as a talk and given at 544 Natoma Street, San Francisco, on April 17, 1983.(1) The “Who Is Speaking?” panel discussion had taken...

The Flower of Capital

(sermon faux – vraie historie) . . . and the old dogmatism will no longer be able to end it. ADOLFO SÁNCHEZ VÁZQUEZ The flower of capital is small and...

especially for Ebbe Borregaard (1) I am writing here about my poetry in relation to poetry. The writing had an occasion: for a few in San Francisco, where I read it...

Some Notes on Organic Form

For me, back of the idea of organic form is the concept that there is a form in all things (and in our experience) which the poet can discover and...

200 Years of Afro-American Poetry

Poets and versifiers of African descent have been publishing poetry on American shores since the year 1746 when a slave woman named Lucy Terry penned a rhymed description of an...

California Lecture: from “Poetry and Politics”

THOMAS PARKINSON :(1) I think we can start the lecture now. This seems to be old home week. We have Jack Spicer with us, as we have off and on now...

Vancouver Lectures: from "Dictation and 'A Textbook of Poetry'"

JACK SPICER : Well, I really ought to explain the structure of the three lecture/readings, more than is on the flyer that some of you saw. Essentially what’s going to happen...

Expressive Language

Speech is the effective form of a culture. Any shape or cluster of human history still apparent in the conscious and unconscious habit of groups of people is what I...

Jazz as Communication

You can start anywhere—Jazz as Communication—since it’s a circle, and you yourself are the dot in the middle. You, me. For example, I’ll start with the Blues. I’m not a...

Projective Verse

PROJECTIVE VERSE[1] (projectile (percussive (prospective ...

The Poem as a Field of Action

Talk given at the University of Washington, 1948 Let’s begin by quoting Mr. Auden—(from The Orators ): “Need I remind you that you’re no longer living in ancient Egypt?” I’m going to say...

Introduction to The Wedge

The War is the first and only thing in the world today. The arts generally are not, nor is this writing a diversion from that for relief, a turning away. It...

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Essay Samples on Poetry

Understanding graphic novels: context and analysis for reading.

Introduction Graphic novels are stories illustrated in comic form but have the length of a novel. “The term graphic novel was invented in 1970 however, the time of its origin is not concluded yet” (“Levitz”). Graphic novels have been debated for decades since some readers...

Graphic Novel
Visual Arts

Brief History and Celebration Process of World Poetry Day

Poetry is a great platform to express one's thoughts and release one's emotions. It has helped us understand and appreciate the world around us. Poetry is often used as a language, connecting minds and hearts. Its ability to shed light on the world is what...

World Poetry

Kofi Awoonor's Poetry: a Voice of African Identity and Resistance

Kofi Awoonor, a Ghanaian poet, has cemented himself as a legend in contemporary Ghanaian and African poetry through his great and incredible contribution. He spoke drastically on various topics and issues on numerous platforms. He strongly believed in the idea 'Nobody should be ashamed of...

The Image of the Statue of Liberty in the Poem 'The New Colossus'

The one work, which I find the most intriguing, that will be discussed in this paper is a sonnet Emma Lazarus wrote when she was asked to write a poem to aid in fundraising to support the building of the pedestal for the Statue of...

Audre Lodre and Marge Piercy on the Lives of Women

In “Rooming Houses are Old Women” by Audre Lorde and “The Secretary Chant” by Marge Piercy, both poets express the lives of older women. Both poems express how older women feel about themselves now. They are not how they use to be, and they are...

Audre Lorde

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Power by Audre Lorde: Police Brutality and Superiority Over Others

The poem “Power” by Audre Lorde was made in 1978 and based on an event where a black ten-year-old was shot by a white policeman while being written through the narrator’s perspective. This poem is about the effects of police brutality and power over others....

Audre Lorde on the Concept of American Dream

The American Dream, in simple terms is the idea that anyone, regardless of race, gender, age, or social class can achieve their own version of success. For many people, it consists of getting a good education, finding a job with decent pay, meeting the love...

Dismantling Social Structure By Lorde, Mcintosh, And Collective

On May 20, 2014, a professor of English, Ersula Ore, was stopped by a Tempe police officer next to the Arizona State University Campus for jaywalking on a public street. As video footage of the initial arrest emerged the public and University’s reactions were noted....

Richard Cory, Atticus Finch and Jay Gatsby: The Similarities Between Them

Atticus Finch, in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, reveals an interesting fact about people. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it” (Lee 39). Finch’s...

The Great Gatsby
To Kill a Mockingbird

Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson: Money Doesn't Buy Happiness

The poem “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson is made up of four-line stanzas, and each of those stanzas has an ABAB rhyme scheme. That means that the first and third lines of each stanza rhyme, as do the second and fourth lines. This poem...

A Look at the American Poetry: Because I Could Not Stop for Death and Other Works

The key message in Truth’s poem, “If woman has a pint and man a quart—why can’t she have her little pint full?”is directed to men and delivering the message about men and their irrational fear that there is a finite supply of rights that exists...

Emily Dickinson

Images Of Nature In R. Frost`s Poetry

Nature is a beautiful and mysterious entity. It is vast and can have you wandering and wondering until you are lost both physically and mentally. Just being surrounded by nature can have you feeling up or feeling down. The immensity of it all can be...

Robert Frost

Breaking The Parametr In Red Wheelbarrow: Analysis

The most conspicuous element of modernist poetry is the invention and experimentation of new forms of representation. It featured movements such as imagism and symbolism and moved consciously away from naturalism and realism. Ezra Pound was one of the first to delve into this new...

The Dying Of The Light And Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night is a poem by Dylan Thomas. It is about how Dylan believes that people with old age and being on the brink of death should not just accept death immediately and should fight it no matter how...

Actions Speak Louder Than Words In Poetry

Just as light overpowers darkness, actions overpower words. A wise man once said, “actions are worth 1000 words”, but we as humans tend to make mistakes in our actions that are significant, and against the word of humanity, but we repeat them anyway. In order...

Actions Speak Louder Than Words
American Poetry

The Torment Of Youngsters In Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

In Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar,” the author is describing his desired way to part from this world. His word choice helps create an illusion over the theme of his poem. As far with word choice, the author uses imagery to help paint a picture in...

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Great Short Poems: Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

“Great Short Poems” edited by Paul Negri, is a collection of short poems that works over 500 years of English and American literature. All of handful poems have their own stories and topics that are compressed in a few well-chosen words. Defining fundamental element of...

The Use Of Imagery In The Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Perhaps the most terrifying entity to humans is the concept of unstoppable death. We are all extremely aware that death will be our inevitable fate some day, but how one goes about coming to terms with this reality, or not, is entirely left to the...

Imagery in Literature

The Author's Purpose In When I Heard The Learn'd Astronomer

Education. the pathway of understanding, the basis of knowledge, and the determinant of lifelong success. Education teaches self- discipline, self- application, critical thinking and problem solving. It is right for each and every human being, and it propels students into future opportunities. It is pivotal...

Walt Whitman
When I Heard The Learn'd Astronomer

Conveying The Mood Of The Stanzas In The Bells

Edgar Allen Poe uses different kinds of figurative language in his poems. The figurative language he uses brings his poems to life, while using very different vibes, starting with cheerful, but then ending in gloom. In his one poem,¨The Bells¨, he specifically uses personification, alliteration,...

Edgar Allan Poe
Mood in Literature

Effect Of Sylvia Plath's Use Of Common Words On Reader's Mood

Literature allows the creators to portray expressive emotions behind masks of ink allowing readers to ponder the strategic placement of each phrase coupled with its meaning. Plath outwardly expresses her complex emotions and underlying feeling of conflict, contrasting to Teale’s depiction of Charlotte who expresses...

Sylvia Plath

Provence Of Life In Poetry: Mood In American Poetry

The language of poetry is distinctly different from other languages, it is condensed and concentrated form of literature. It must say quite a bit with a limited number of words therefore it tends to be intense, especially because “it concernes itself with all kinds of...

Example Of Allegory In Little London Boy And Other Poetry

Little London Boy: Oh sorrowful little London boy who begrudgingly treads the rotting land, have you yet to find your mother upon the festering throng? Through piles of corpses your pallid face scans the old London street scattered with the diseased cadaver of man. Wipe...

Allegory in Literature

Walt Whitman's Poetry: Allegory Examples In Poetry

Walt Whitman was a well-known journalist and poet. He was considered one of the most influential poets in American history. He directed his writing into a more traditional epic and aesthetic approach to show the true beauty behind what he was writing. In 1855, he...

Religious Imagery In Langston Hughes' Poem

Langston Hughes poem “Song for a Dark Girl” portrays the heartache of a young black girl, from the South in America, who discovers the torturous death of her lover. The poem takes place during a time period where oppression towards people of color was very...

Imagery In Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Dylan Thomas’ “Do not go gentle into that good night” is a dejected poem where the speaker’s emotions’ and feelings’ are despairing as his father's time is running out. The speaker uses repetition, metaphors, alliteration, and other rhetorical devices to attribute his attitude concerning his...

The Imagery Of Light Used In The Poem Dream-land

Imagine a world in which we had no pictures and nothing to look at. Now, imagine a world without music or melody, these two elements are necessary factors in our life and without them, we ourselves won’t be human. In the poem “Dream-Land,” the author...

Literary Devices

The Imagery In Poetry: I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud And Noiseless Patient Spider

The poem ‘A Noiseless Patient Spider by Walt Whitman is a free verse poem that does not contain patterns of rhyme or meter. It has two stanzas and each comprises of five lines which makes it a quintet which is a five-lined stanza in poetry....

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

Analysis Of Letting Go And Dying In Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Abstract Letting go is one of the most difficult tasks we face in life, especially when it means we are losing someone we love. Programs, such as hospice, have been designed to offer a level of care that focuses on quality of life and comfort...

The Theme Of Death In "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night "And Sonnet 18

Each story has themes, and the analysis of different themes builds deepness to any story, especially if those themes are universal. I have chosen two poems, Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare and Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas are two...

William Shakespeare

Portrayal Of Theme Of Death In Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

The oxford dictionary states that death is the permanent end of all life functions in an organism or part of an organism. In the three poems I have studied, death is portrayed in a completely different way in each of the poems. Death be not...

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night: Dylan Thomas' Depiction Of Cycle Of Life

The cycle of life always ends in death, but the frightful aspect of death is not necessarily death itself, but the concept of timing and maybe how it happens. We all know that death will be our fate someday, but how we accept or how...

The Raven: Critical Analysis Of Symbolism In It

Edgar Allan Poe is a poet and critic of literature, born in America in 1809 and was famous for his romantic writings that may contain a lot of imagination, and in that period of time the writers began to try to know the relationship between...

The Contrast In Whitman's And Dickinson's Poetry

Throughout their extensive collection of poetry, we can see both a lot of similarities and differences between poets Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Both were poets of the nineteenth century, a time that was considered the Romantic period and a time that changed a lot...

The Comparative Analysis Of Dickinson's And Whitman's Poetry

There are various types and ways of writing a poem. Dickinson and Whitman are two examples of authors who have different types of tones and styles in the literary world. Both have numerous differences when it comes to their poems. This is why this essay...

The Raven And Usage Of Allegory And Different Literary Devices

Summarize the plot of Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Raven the poem is written in 18 stanzas the speaker of the poem reads over old books on a dreary night to his beloved Lenore he falls asleep when he hears a knock at the door...

The Symbolism Of Death In Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven

I was trying to get some sleep after a long day of doing my daily chores. My thoughts are the only thing keeping me awake. I miss my wife Lenore too much. I miss her sleeping next to me every night. I miss the way...

Analysis of the Major Characteristics of Pablo Neruda's Poetry

Throughout his poetic career, Pablo Neruda’s uses of natural places were an important element of his poetry. During the 20th century, Pablo Neruda is a major poet in Latin America specifically for incorporating political statements into his poems. Another important element used in his poems...

Pablo Neruda

Modernist Approach To The Reality Of Death In Poems The Emperor Of Ice Cream By Wallace Stevens And Stop All The Clocks By W. H. Auden

Both Stevens and Auden incorporate similar understandings of death, as their poems portray a melancholy tone and the use of irony-based examples related to the characteristics of Modernism. In Stevens’s poem, “The Emperor of Ice Cream,” he evokes the theme of death, in which one...

The Emperor of Ice Cream
W. H. Auden

Reminiscences Of The Loss Of Innocence In Dylan Thomas' Poem Fern Hill

“Fern Hill” by Dylan Thomas. “Fern Hill” recounts the story of a young man who has very happy memories of his youth. The piece utilizes basic yet expressive language and symbolism to bring out the cheerful time of youth. Worried about youth and sentimentality, it...

Authors' Critique of Society in "The Chimney Sweeper" and "To The Infant Martyrs"

William Blake’s poems “The Chimney Sweeper” and Richard Crashaw’s poems “To the Infant Martyrs” highlight the harsh realities of society and the way people treated children during the 18th century in England. Through powerful imagery, Blake and Crashaw explore the themes of child labor, poverty,...

William Blake

How Christina Rossetti Addresses Sexual Issues In Her Poetry

In the late twentieth century, after the rise of feminist and gender studies, there was a great interest in the literary works of women from the previous centuries, which was somewhat forgotten before. This increased intrest saved poets such as Christina Rossetti from neglect and...

Christina Rossetti
Sexual Assaults

Subversion Of Puritan Beliefs In Anne Bradstreet's Poem To My Dear And Loving Husband

Over the course of history, women were constantly expected to behave a certain way, both in the public and private sphere. Due to the traditions of a patriarchal, Puritan society, women in early America were held to a standard that was less than the men...

Anne Bradstreet

Analysis Of William Wordsworth's Poem The World Is Too Much With Us: Cry Of The Modern Man

The Romantic period is generally considered to have stretched from the late 1700s to the early 1800s. William Wordsworth emerged as a leading figure within this movement which was renowned for its intense reverence of the natural world. Wordsworth’s polemic “The world is too much...

English Poetry

The Use Of Pastoral In John Milton's Poem Lycidas

“Lycidas' by John Milton is a pastoral elegy which deals with the process of grieving the while in the midst of a picturesque landscape. Milton drew inspiration for “Lycidas' from his personal life, as the character of Lycidas embodies his good friend Edward King. The...

A Brief Comparative Study of Primary and Secondary Epic with reference to Homeric and Virgilian Epic

Introduction Oxford English Dictionary defines an epic as a poem, typically derived from ancient oral tradition, which celebrates in the form of a continuous narrative the achievements of one or more heroic characters of history or legend. It is defined and explained in a similar...

Comparative Analysis of the Poetry of William Shakespeare, Robert Frost, and William Wordsworth

William Shakespeare was an English poet, dramatist, and actor often called the English national poet and considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of time (Biography.com Editors, 2014). I always read Shakespeare in Farsi, and it was a totally different feeling when I read...

The Symbolism of Humanity in Robert Frost's Poems

Robert Frost is a prominent American with many well known poems under his belt. Some of these poems include Nothing Gold Can Stay and Stopping by woods on a snowy evening. When Frost writes, he likes focusing on his personal experiences and the human condition....

Nothing Gold Can Stay

The Literary Analysis of Poetry and Fictional Works

There were both similarity and difference between Don Quixote and King Arthur. The similarity was they both had roles which made them noble. Both of them wanted the best for those around them. Before acquiring a position of knight Don Quixote was a normal man...

Literature Review

The Power of Love as Described in Anne Bradstreet's' Poem

What is poetry? Poetry is an artistic writing that attempts to focus a reader’s imagination and emotions. A poet who is a person creates poetry by expressing ideas in a literal sense to an audience. Anne Bradstreet was born in 1612 in Northampton shire, England...

Colonialism and Puritan Mindset in Anne Bradstreet's Poetry

It is difficult to fathom going into someone’s home and not being a gracious guest. It is more incredulous to consider how, even if that standard of gratitude is not met, the homeowner would be treated as the interloper. So if you know the history...

A Boy’s Complex Love to His Father in Theodore Roethke's Poem My Papa's Waltz

Poetry is always used to narrate poet’s childhood experience and deliver the emotions to others. Theodore Roethke’s poem “My Papa’s Waltz” is a simple four stanza poem narrating his childhood incident of dancing with his drunk father. However, the poem is complexity with hidden meanings...

My Papa's Waltz

Symbolism in the Poems "I Hear America Singing" and "Dover Beach"

In this poem, “I Hear America Singing,” the people are given the freedom no matter their job to be able to sing the songs they want and still have an opinion. This poem describes people that make up America today such as carpenters, wives, mothers,...

I Hear America Singing

Portrayal of the Autumn Season in the Poem To Autumn by John Keats

John believed in the beauty of nature and what the human being entails in the world. He lived in London, England during the 16th and 17th Century and wasn’t just an ordinary man but a poet who managed to achieve his goals even though he...

Ideas Behind the Poetry of the Member of Black Arts Movement, Nikki Giovanni

There are many ways to express a story or feelings; one way being poetry. Poetry has been around for many decades, continuously growing in popularity over the years. As poetry became more published it was sorted and assigned into different categories of poetry. A few...

Nikki Giovanni

The Theme of Racism in Ballad of Birmingham and Incident

Poetry is often inspired by the events and context of the time that it is created. During the 1900’s, racism was extremely prominent, and it inspired various authors to craft their work around the scenarios that people of color experienced. Racism comes in many forms...

African American
Ballad of Birmingham

Exploring the Atmosphere of Boer War in Poetry

Thomas write his poem “The Man He Killed” at the time of the second Boer War (1899-1902), following by the poem “Channel Firing” right out before outbreak of World Warl. Through his words raised in his work, it’s seems that he want to show the...

Thomas Hardy

A Study of Margaret Atwood and Her Poetic World: This Is a Photograph of Me, Spelling

Margaret Atwood has deeply involved with nationalism and the rise of independent cultural values in Canada. Although she has spent a lot of time in America but she has never thought herself as an American poet. She is a poetess with different attitude. She shows...

The Story of the Boy who Lives on in To an Athlete Dying Young

To an Athlete Dying young by A.E. Housman is about a young man who dies in his youth. The poem starts off very cheerful, enjoying life and its sadly must come to an end. A young man has to face death at the height of...

To An Athlete Dying Young

The Poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks and Her Contribution to American Heritage

The poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks, which was influenced by her personal background and by the Harlem Renaissance literary period, has contributed to the American Literary Heritage. Ms. Brooks works are truly amazing. They have very profound meanings ahd you have to truly understand her writings...

We Real Cool

The Theme of Actions and Their Consequences in the Poems of Gwendolyn Brooks

According to author Kenny Jackson Williams, during Gwendolyn Brooks’ school years she had attended three different high schools and 1 college all with different racial standards. Being able to attend all of these schools, Brooks was able to experience many different environments and events to...

Unique Poetry of William Wordsworth, The Father of Romanticism

In the late 18th and 19th century poets joined together to write about a cause that they felt deeply about. The Romantic Era started with a man named William Wordsworth who is also known as the Father of Romanticism. During this time, the world was...

Romantic Era

Usage of Symbolism in The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Symbolism is an artistic and poetic movement or style using symbolic images and indirect suggestion to express mystical ideas, emotions, and states of mind. In the movie “The Da Vinci Code” there were many, many symbols. Symbols can take different forms. Generally, it is an...

Seamus Heaney’s Blackberry Picking: A Retrospective on Life

“Blackberry picking” by Seamus Heaney is a poem about time, greed, the limitation and struggles of life and the disappointments that follow. The poem is written retrospectively about an individual's life. Although seemingly written in first person, Heaney is referring to life’s different struggles and...

Blackberry Picking

Analysis of the Literary Composition in Blackberry Picking

This is a pleasant literary work that provides colorful detail and clever diction. The author is attempting to relay on a deeper that means by exploitation the easy scenario of choosing blackberries, even supposing the topic of the verse form knew that the blackberries would...

Comparison of To Autumn by John Keats and Afternoons by Philip Larkin

Introduction Account of seasons coming to an end 'evening expired away' and 'think not of them' Wordsworth then Keats were romantic poets Poets write about discovery beauty and joy in countryside William Wordsworth and John Keats were great poets of the romantic period. After poems...

How Maya Angelou Addresses Bigotry in Her Poem Still I Rise

In the poem ‘Still I Rise’, Maya Angelou describes and addresses the bigotry, racism, and hatred that have been directed at her, her gender, and her nationality throughout history. In the first stanza, Angelou’s persona states that the history of the black American population have...

Discrimination
Still I Rise

The Relationship Between Literature and Art

Throughout the years literature and art have always had a very close relationship however, deeper than this, is the link between poetry and painting. To discuss the reasons why one might value a ‘literary painting’ over other kinds of paintings, I will talk about the...

The Characteristics of Eliot’s Poetry That Distinguish It As Radically Modern

T.S. Eliot is a modernist poet who addresses issues within the modern world and society, he discusses many of the fears and worries that society at his time experienced about the evolving world in which they were living. Eliot’s own apprehension about the world stemmed...

The Dark Poetry of Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold

Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold was written in 1867. My first thought on this piece was that it was going to be a peaceful poem about the ocean, but it quickly turned into a dark one. This poem made me visual the ocean moments and...

Matthew Arnold

Matthew Arnold’s View on Poetry and the Poems Dover Beach and Lady of Shalott

Matthew Arnold said: ‘More and more mankind will discover that we have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us.’ Discuss in relation to at least two Victorian Poems. Matthew Arnold believed that ‘all art is dedicated to...

The Life and Poetic Legacy of Robert Burns

“There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing,” wrote Robert Burns. As early as the age of 15 he was determined to become a writer. Robert Burns was a scottish poet that wrote many famous poems and songs in his time, including one of...

Figurative Language of Robert Burns' Poems

Introduction Background Poetry is one of the literary works that express the feeling of the poet with beautiful words and meaningful. According to Hunt poem is “an expression feeling. Beauty, and power, consummate and describe conception with imagination and fantasy, and the set language on...

The Sadness of Loss in Langston Hughes' Poem Harlem and One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

Loss can be defined as a means of losing someone or something, typically leaving an individual with a feeling of uncertainty. Elizabeth Bishop and Langston Hughes both published poetry within the same time period. Although completely different people they both experienced tremendous events of loss...

Literary Legacy of Walt Whitman, the Father of Free Verse

During the 19th century, Walt Whitman was a very influential poet as he was recognized as the “father of free verse,” thus initiating the transition between transcendentalism and realism by incorporating free thinking with individualism. Additionally, he was often ridiculed for his usage of free-verse...

How Emily Dickinson Communicates Her Ideas Through Her Poetry

Poetry is a beautiful way of writing. It is different from all other writings out there which makes it special. The way poetry is written differently from other writings is what makes it so unique; for instance, poetry is about how it is written, unlike...

Hope Is The Thing With Feathers

Themes and Symbolism in William Cullen Bryant's Poem Thanatopsis

Born in 1794 and dying in 1878, William Cullen Bryant was an American romantic poet, writer, and longtime editor of the New York Evening Post, and the author of Thanatopsis, which means consideration of death. During the time Thanatopsis was written in the 1800s, there...

Thanatopsis

Interpretation of the Main Idea in William Cullen Bryant's Thanatopsis

Death and all its obscurity seemed to be a recurring idea for William Cullen Bryant. In his young years, the American Poet wrote “Thanatopsis”, which was published in the North American Review in 1817 and after a revision published again in 1822, that had the...

Poetry Analysis of Departure by Genny Lim: Word Choice, Tone, and Point of View

Departure was a poem written by Genny Lim, she is a Chinese-American poet. This poem tells about the dying older sister of the writer, probably a Ginny Lim sister or family member. The point of view of the narrator of this poem is first person...

Poetic Anthology of the Romantic Movement

The Romantic movement refers to a period in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, which led to a surge of interest in the artistic and intellectual movement, described by Berlin (2013) as ‘the greatest single shift in the consciousness of the West that...

The Nightingale

The Everpresent Theme of Love in Pablo Neruda's Poetry

“I like for you to be still” by Pablo Neruda is a very meaningful and deep poem written from him to someone else. In summary, the poem is about how someone, referred to as I, pleads to someone to stop and hear him out. It...

Pablo Neruda's Techniques to Gain Momentum in Society

Throughout his poetic career, Pablo Neruda’s use of natural places was an important element of his poetry. Neruda is also known for his poems having such depictive imagery. By combining these two main elements, Neruda’s poems are an effective tool at conveying messages to people...

Conceits and Hidden Meanings In Andrew Marvell’s “The Definition of Love”

“The Definition of Love” by Andrew Marvell is a metaphysical poem about a forbidden love that he can never acquire. He talks about Fate being the sole obstacle between him and his lover who are perfect for one another, yet Fate debars and interferes every...

Andrew Marvell
Metaphysics

Undertones of Carpe Diem in Cavalier and Metaphysical Poetry

Cavalier and Metaphysical poetry are two emerging types of poetry styles that became more prevalent in 17th century England. The two forms of poetry are different in style, topic, and in form. Cavalier poetry has a rhyme scheme, while Metaphysical poetry does not. Yet, their...

The Emphasis of Carpe Diem in John Keating's Teaching

Located in New England in the 1950s, Welton is a prestigious high school with tradition, honor, discipline and value. The school boasts an Ivy League enrollment rate of over 70% and is renowned as an admission school. Students also plan to advance into various specialist...

Percy Bysshe Shelley: Nomination of Nobel Prize in Literature for Adonaïs

Percy Bysshe Shelley's corpse was found on a beach near Viareggio. His sailboat had been wrecked in a storm ten days ago, on July 8, 1822, at sea off the Italian coast. In his jacket pocket, he had a copy of the last book of...

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Romanticism

The Complexity of Blake's Composite Art in The Tyger and The Lamb

An examination of prominent anthologies shows that Mitchell’s assertion is not universally held, as these collections display Blake’s “Songs of Innocence and Experience” exclusively as poetic texts, suggesting that the visual aspect is secondary. Indeed, some critics find Blake’s illustrations superfluous, since they frequently differ...

William Blake's The Tyger: The Mastery of God

Blake starts the poem by starting a discussion with the tiger and very quickly starts his inquiries of who could make such a wild animal. Right off the bat, the all-inclusive representation in stanza 2, 3 and 4, is contrasting the maker and his making...

The Opposition of Societal Views in Crevecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer by Phillis Wheatley

In Crevecoeur’s Letters from an American Farmer and the assigned poems of Phillis Wheatley, both authors use their unique backgrounds to discuss the complex and often opposing views of society in Brisith America. Told from the perspective of a fictional narrator in correspondence with a...

Phillis Wheatley

O Captain, My Company: The Metaphorical Background

Poetries are the combination of people’s intelligence and experience, and they are one of the most beautiful and rhythmic literature in the world. In order to lead the reader into their thought, poets often use tools or similar ways to make the poetries imaginable. Besides,...

O Captain My Captain

The Disturbing Details in Martell's To His Coy Mistress

“To His Coy Mistress” is a poem by Andrew Martell (1621-1678), who was born at Winstead in Holness, in South Yorkshire, and died in 1678 at his house in Bloomsbury. His father was a clergyman (of Calvinist orientation), who then became lecturer at Holy Trinity...

To His Coy Mistress

Familial Love and Father-Child Relationship Depicted in Those Winter Sundays and Digging

In ‘Digging’ by Seamus Heaney, we are taken through the past, present, and future in a free verse poem, observing the lives of three generations in a family; the young speaker, his father, and his grandfather. The speaker identifies himself as a writer, who speaks...

Parent-Child Relationship
Those Winter Sundays

Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden: The Main Undertone of Regret

Born in 1913 into a family which abandoned him, poet Robert Hayden grew up in a rough household and it was not until he was forty that he discovered his original name (Schlib and Clifford 318). Despite all the obstacles he faced, Hayden still went...

Childhood Memories

Representation of African Descent in The Trials of Phillis Wheatley

The Trial of Phillis Wheatley is a play written by Ronald B. Wheatley. Directed by Stephen Levine, it is based on a literary and historical story of the first published female poet of African descent in America. It is set in Boston, MA, which was...

Slave Trade

The Passionate Puritan Poets: Phillis Wheatley

Over the past six centuries, hundreds of thousands of millions of immigrants have immigrated to North America that was artisans, artists, engineers, refugees, slaves, families, and authors. Since the early 1900s, Los Angeles has become one of the greatest multiethnic metropolitan cities in the world...

Atlantic Slave Trade

The Role of Inconsistent Lover in John Donne's Sonnets

The 16th and 17th centuries contained several of English literature’s greatest poets such as Christopher Marlowe, Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, and John Donne. The latter poet, John Donne, was a devoted Catholic who became the dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London in 1621 and...

The Essence of Loyalty in Walt Whitman's Poetry

The dictionary defines loyalty as a strong feeling of support or allegiance. There are many instances throughout history that show people demonstrating their loyalty to other people of power or even people that are equal to them. In this case I will be discussing Walt...

Analysis of Personal Tones in "Those Winter Sundays"

It is difficult for children to understand the efforts parents put into taking care of a family. They often do not see the love that is expressed indirectly towards them, but it is simply natural for a young child to be self-centered. Some parents do...

Eugenia Collier's "Marigolds" and the Influence of Family on Poetry

Eugenia Collier was born on April 6, 1928. Her parents raised her in a loving home, and she grew up influenced by her father’s love of poetry. Collier says that one of her happiest memories was sitting on her fathers lap as he read poems...

Family Values

Vitality of Critical Thoughts in the Poetry of W. H. Auden

Poetry does not belong to the sphere of polemics and ideology rather it stimulates the intangible. Inherently subversive, poetry is an artistic abstraction so polyvalent in nature and paradoxical in language, that it invites individuals to derive meaning in the poem independently and to a...

Best topics on Poetry

1. Understanding Graphic Novels: Context and Analysis for Reading

2. Brief History and Celebration Process of World Poetry Day

3. Kofi Awoonor’s Poetry: a Voice of African Identity and Resistance

4. The Image of the Statue of Liberty in the Poem ‘The New Colossus’

5. Audre Lodre and Marge Piercy on the Lives of Women

6. Power by Audre Lorde: Police Brutality and Superiority Over Others

7. Audre Lorde on the Concept of American Dream

8. Dismantling Social Structure By Lorde, Mcintosh, And Collective

9. Richard Cory, Atticus Finch and Jay Gatsby: The Similarities Between Them

10. Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson: Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness

11. A Look at the American Poetry: Because I Could Not Stop for Death and Other Works

12. Images Of Nature In R. Frost`s Poetry

13. Breaking The Parametr In Red Wheelbarrow: Analysis

14. The Dying Of The Light And Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

15. Actions Speak Louder Than Words In Poetry

Sonny's Blues
Hidden Intellectualism
A Raisin in The Sun
A Place to Stand
A Christmas Carol
A Worn Path
A Jury of Her Peers

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Literary Genres — Poetry

Essays on Poetry

What makes a good poetry essay topics.

When it comes to writing a poetry essay, choosing the right topic is crucial. A good poetry essay topic should be engaging, thought-provoking, and allow for in-depth analysis and interpretation. But how do you brainstorm and choose the perfect poetry essay topic? Here are some recommendations:

Brainstorming: Start by brainstorming different themes, styles, and poets that interest you. Consider the emotions or messages conveyed in the poems and how they relate to your own experiences or the world around you.
What to consider: When choosing a poetry essay topic, consider the depth and complexity of the poem, the historical or cultural context in which it was written, and the impact it has had on the literary world. Look for topics that allow you to delve into these aspects and provide insightful analysis.
What Makes a Good essay topic: A good poetry essay topic should be specific, original, and allow for multiple interpretations. It should also be relevant and timely, sparking interest and discussion among readers.

Best Poetry Essay Topics

The use of nature imagery in the poetry of Emily Dickinson
The role of symbolism in the works of William Blake
The representation of love and loss in the sonnets of Elizabeth Barrett Browning
The influence of jazz and blues on the poetry of Langston Hughes
The theme of war and its impact on the poetry of Wilfred Owen
... (list continues)

Poetry essay topics Prompts

Looking for some creative prompts to inspire your next poetry essay? Here are five engaging prompts to get you started:

Choose a contemporary poet and analyze how their work reflects the current social and political climate.
Select a classic poem and explore how its themes and imagery are still relevant in today's society.
Compare and contrast the use of nature imagery in two different poems, discussing how each poet's perspective influences the portrayal of the natural world.
Explore the use of form and structure in a specific poem, discussing how it enhances or detracts from the overall meaning and impact.
Choose a poem that addresses a universal human experience, such as love, loss, or resilience, and analyze how the poet conveys these emotions through language and imagery.

When it comes to choosing a poetry essay topic, it's important to consider the depth and complexity of the poem, the historical or cultural context, and the impact it has had on the literary world. By brainstorming and considering these factors, you can select a topic that is engaging, thought-provoking, and allows for in-depth analysis and interpretation. And with the list of best poetry essay topics and creative prompts provided, you'll have plenty of inspiration to get started on your next poetry essay.

Navigating The Human Experience: an Analysis of Nikki Giovanni's Poetry

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An Analysis of "A Song in The Front Yard" by Gwendolyn Brooks

The analysis of the poem "in a station of the metro" by ezra pound, colonial beauty in sidney’s "astrophil and stella" and shakespeare’s sonnets, the topic of nature in william wordsworth's poetry, let us write you an essay from scratch.

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How The Horror is Constructed in Plath's Poetry

Analysis of the poem invictus by william ernest henley, human suffering in the poems of w.h. auden, dead poets society: the power of individual thoughts, get a personalized essay in under 3 hours.

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Theme of Life and Death in 'The Mother' by Gwendolyn Brooks

Theme of abortion in gwendolyn brooks’ 'the mother' and lucille clifton's 'the lost baby poem', judith wright's "australia 1970": poem analysis, youth’s concept of death in wordsworth's poetry , the elements of romantic poetry in the tyger by william blake, the connection of william wordsworth's poetry with the natural world, imagery in "the love song of j. alfred prufrock", a close reading of t.s. eliot’s the love song of j. alfred prufrock, a nazi’s metamorphosis in maxine kumin’s poem "woodchucks", literary analysis of samuel taylor cleridge's poem "love", the poem "beowulf": literary analysis, the use of decay & beauty in "stella’s birthday", analysis of the poem i know why the caged bird sings by maya angelou, a closer look on live and death in "whispers of immortality", christina rossetti and james weldon johnson on death/dying, analysis of 'if' and 'do not go gentle into that good night', reflection on paul laurence dunbar’s poem we wear the mask, paul laurence dunbar’s resilience in we wear the mask, love in elizabeth browining's 'how do i love thee' (sonnet 43), deconstructing the poem legal alien by pat mora.

Poetry is a form of literature, verbal artistic creativity, an additional measure of speech of which is a verse, a line of poetry and rhymes.

Sonnet, shi, villanelle, limerick, tanka, haiku, khlong, khlong si suphap, ode

Narrative poetry, lyric poetry, epic poetry, satirical poetry, elegy, verse fable, dramatic poetry, speculative poetry, prose poetry, light poetry

1. Wainwright, J. (2015). Poetry: the basics. Routledge. (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315742137/poetry-basics-jeffrey-wainwright) 2. Woodring, C. (2013). Politics in English romantic poetry. In Politics in English Romantic Poetry. Harvard University Press. (https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.4159/harvard.9780674434547/html) 3. Eichner, H. (1956). Friedrich Schlegel's theory of romantic poetry. PMLA, 71(5), 1018-1041. (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/pmla/article/abs/friedrich-schlegels-theory-of-romantic-poetry/3CAFEAE1171ED3B468562C11F0AD76F5) 4. Cronin, R. (2000). The Politics of Romantic Poetry: In Search of the Pure Commonwealth. Springer. (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9780230287051) 5. Campbell, J. (1999). Combat gnosticism: The ideology of First World War poetry criticism. New Literary History, 30(1), 203-215. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/20057530) 6. Schweik, S. (1987). Writing war poetry like a woman. Critical Inquiry, 13(3), 532-556. (https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/448407?journalCode=ci) 7. Barrett, F. P., & Miller, C. (2005). " Words for the Hour": A New Anthology of American Civil War Poetry. University of Massachusetts Press. (https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/190/monograph/book/4298) 8. Das, S. (2009). War poetry and the realm of the senses: Owen and Rosenberg. (https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/34521/chapter-abstract/292894258?redirectedFrom=fulltext) 9. Mellor, A. K. (1999). The female poet and the poetess: two traditions of British women’s poetry, 1780–1830. Women’s Poetry in the Enlightenment: The Making of a Canon, 1730–1820, 81-98. (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-27024-8_5) 10. Kaufman, J. C., & Baer, J. (2002). I bask in dreams of suicide: Mental illness, poetry, and women. Review of general psychology, 6(3), 271-286. (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1037/1089-2680.6.3.271?journalCode=rgpa)

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Emily Dickinson’s Enduring Legacy: a Reflection on American Poetry

This essay is about Emily Dickinson a prominent figure in American literature known for her introspective and profound poetry. It explores her unconventional style themes of death nature and identity and the deep personal and philosophical reflections in her work. Despite living a secluded life Dickinson’s poetry resonates with emotional depth and intellectual engagement making her a trailblazer whose work continues to inspire and provoke thought. The essay highlights her enduring legacy and significant impact on American literary history.

How it works

Emily Dickinson remains a high person in American literature celebrates for her introspective and profond poetry. In vexation from advancement secluded life she empty works deeply in themes so as for example death rate nature equality and expert abandons indelible mark on readers and erudite identically.

Only from one appoint characteristic poetry Dickinson is his unconventional account. She often hires puffs illegal habitant capitalization and the compressed lines creates a rhythm and accent that draw readers in her the distinctive contemplative world.

For example in that “that is why that I it no can stop he for death” use puffs strategic removal sign walk with death distinguishes inexorable défile time and inevitability death rate. This poem among much from other without sewing connects general daily reviews with deep images offers research mysteries life and death deeply personal.

Themes Dickinson deeply interlace with her personal experience and philosophical discussions. She poetry often contrasts he concept death no so as scrap and so as moving despite other state existence. In “me covers a felt funerals in my brain” she uses absolute imagery to pretend to be disintegration intellectual inclinations metaphorically likening it despite a train. This inclination image underscores Dickinson articulate emotions and existential questions cause the complex of inferiority with a clarity and rapid sharpness.

Nature serves other leit-motif elegant in a poetry Dickinson. She often hires natural imagery to investigate emotions and human cléricales penetrating. Despite a “bird flattens he walk” Dickinson meticulously looks after a relation bird captivates both his beauty so and violence private nature. A poem is laid out from a general clear review despite a staggering moment when a bird consumes a worm illustrates realities life and bicycle existence hard. This high attention to go into detail and research decorate deep nature observant habits Dickinson and she inclination to find profond in importance moments ?? aspect ordinary high.

Dickinson’s poetry also reflects her profound introspection and exploration of identity. Living a largely secluded life allowed her to delve deeply into her inner world resulting in poetry that resonates with a keen awareness of self and societal norms. In “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” she challenges conventional notions of fame and recognition embracing the idea of anonymity and outsider status. This poem like many others highlights Dickinson’s defiance of societal expectations and her celebration of individuality.

Despite her relative isolation Dickinson was intellectually engaged with the literary and philosophical currents of her time. She drew inspiration from a wide range of sources including Shakespeare the Bible and contemporary poets such as Ralph Waldo Emerson. Her correspondence with friends and mentors provided her with intellectual stimulation and validation even though her poems were not widely published during her lifetime. This rich tapestry of influences and her introspective nature converged to create poetry that is both deeply personal and universally resonant.

The reception of Dickinson’s work has evolved significantly over time. Initially misunderstood for her unconventional style and thematic preoccupations Dickinson’s poetry has come to be recognized for its innovation emotional depth and profound insights into the human condition. Today she is celebrated as a trailblazer in American literature whose poetry continues to inspire and provoke thought among readers and scholars alike.

In conclusion Emily Dickinson’s poetry stands as a testament to the power of introspection and the exploration of universal themes through a uniquely personal lens. Her distinctive style marked by its unconventional punctuation and succinct language creates a compelling and enduring voice that continues to captivate readers. Through her meditations on mortality nature and identity Dickinson offers profound insights into the complexities of existence. Her work once overlooked now holds a revered place in American literary canon demonstrating the timeless relevance of true artistic genius.

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Emily Dickinson's Enduring Legacy: A Reflection on American Poetry
Essay Example: Emily Dickinson remains a high person in American literature celebrates for her introspective and profond poetry. In vexation from advancement secluded life she empty works deeply in themes so as for example death rate nature equality and expert abandons indelible mark on readers
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