To get a little background info out of the way, I write mostly rhyming poetry with a very clear narrative. There's going to a definite emphasis on rhyming poems and poems that carry a narrative, but I think there are a few general concepts in here that any poets can use, if they don't already. Each piece I do has a very well defined beginning, middle and end. I might get into the techniques I use for crafting narrative poetry in the future, but I want to start off by focusing on the end (trust me, it's the way to do it).
The ending is important because it is where the impact of your poem will be felt the most. Whether you're going for an emotional or an intellectual hit at the end, the final moments are what will make your poem be REMEMBERED afterwards. A couple standout lines in the middle are always a good thing, but a truly brilliant final line or stanza will really stick with people.
If you already write narrative poems, you probably know this. You probably know this if you write ANY poetry actually. The ending is clearly important, but how do we go about setting up a killer ending?
The first important thing is to build to it. This is tricky to explain without getting into very specific details or using specific examples. You need to build up to your ending without giving away where you are going with it, or else you have robbed your audience of the proper punch. One thing I like to do is have a few stanzas that begin to wrap up the story, then the final stanza take either one step further back to get more reflective, or one step further in to get suddenly more personal.
I feel kind of guilty using my own work as examples, but I think people might want an example so I can show you what I mean. These are my (humble) examples... I by no means am trying to pass these off as poetic perfection, here we go.
One step further back : http://allpoetry.com/poem/2049680 - painting anarchy
One step further in : http://allpoetry.com/poem/2817930 - manneKim
Hopefully if you read either or both of those you enjoyed them. On with the column!
Let's suppose you don't write narrative poems and you can't really build to an ending in the traditional sense. Even if your work is purely descriptive, there should be a definite build throughout most of your piece, but the technique for your final stanza is a little different since you don't have a story you need to conclude. You can still do the trick of either taking one step back or one step further in to deliver a strong emotional or intellectual climax, but you can also consider changing your angle, providing an ironic twist that perhaps undermines the rest of the poem. This is the type of stuff you tend to plot out in advance, but it is worth mentioning.
One thing though, don't build a kicker or a twist into every poem you do... in fact, I would advise against any sort of pattern. At one point I had a pretty predictable "set up a pretty scene and then wreck it" sort of style, where people who read my work regularly could sense the direction of my poem and get ahead of me... you never want your reader to try to get ahead of you, unless you are trying to lead them in the wrong direction. I mix up my poems a whole lot more structurally now, and I'm not so predictably negative.
With the kicker ending I should mention the "soft sell" ending. Here, instead of your big traditional climax, you intentionally bring the energy down at the last moment, often with a thematic inversion of some of the preceding poem. A soft sell can also imply a whole lot more about the poem or the ending than it initially seems, rewarding any attention that is paid to it. Be very careful with this one.. if you botch it, you can create an anticlimax. What you are doing with your soft sell must be very clear, lest you leave your reader confused and unsure of what to say. You may have been going with that, in which case you'll only know you succeeded when you get those ever so lovely vague comments.
The final line is a very tough one to talk about. It should definitely be one of the strongest lines in the poem, or one of the most essential anyway. It would be too easy if there was a simple formula for it. The final line must capture the core or the punchline that your poem was going for in a very small amount of space. Unless it is a soft sell, it should also emphasize it's own finality and importance. The very fact that it's the last bit of words you're leaving someone with makes them important as we've discussed, but the words themselves must make themselves important.
Rhymers, do NOT skimp on your last couple rhymes. If your last rhyme is "reachy" and it feels like you were trying too hard to match one word to another, it will cast a bad light on your whole poem. Non rhymers, there's slightly less pressure on you (isn't there always?), but don't neglect your final lines either. Maybe it's just me, but it often determines whether or not I leave a comment at all.
Another trick is to leave them wanting more... I mentioned a while back in this column that you should never let your readers get ahead of you, but unless your poem has a surprise ending, how can you stop this from happening? I'll handle that in my next post on beginnings and capturing interest.
Thank you for reading. Let me know if you enjoyed this or found any of it useful.
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