Poetry Types and Styles

Not poetic forms, instead I deal with the different messages poems can contain, and how to bring them out.

There are many different types of poetry.  But I don't want to discuss the different structures here, since there are thousands of webpages which will tell you what a villanelle should be.  I want to describe the different *points* of poetry, and how to bring them out in your writing.  Intrigued?  Read on!

Emotional
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No one who has spent any length of time on AP can doubt what I mean by "emotional" poetry.  It's the poetry where the main theme is an emotion.  Every poet writes this sort of poem at one time or another in their lives, because emotion is a very powerful facet of our lives.

Emotions aren't rational, so this type of poem works very well as free verse poetry.  There are many tricks you can use in your language and structure which heighten the emotion conveyed to the reader.  For example, imagine I was trying to write about anger.  Anger is a fast emotion, so I'd want short words to build pace.  It's abrupt, so I'd want short lines, and minimal punctuation such as commas, although full stops and exclamation marks add to the effect.  Anger is a very definite emotion, so I'd want vivid images, and use metaphors rather than similes, because similes (as *** as a ***) say the same thing in more words.  I'd want to minimise repetition, although the original irritant can be repeated, as can key images (perhaps the colour red might form a theme).

Rhyme can work in emotion poems, but then we're imposing an artificial structure on our emotions, so this is best used when adressing another person, as in so many love poems, or when there's something to be gained from the structure, like the brevity of haiku or the repetitiveness of a villanelle.

Message
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In this type of poetry, the poet has something to communicate - a statement on life in general, for example, or an observation about the way people behave.  The message does not have to be specifically stated, but it has to be clear.  There are many ways of reinforcing a message in a poem.  Perhaps the most obvious is an acrostic poem, in which the first (or last, or both) letters of each line spell out a word or phrase.  But imagery, language, structure, line breaks, everything about your poem communicates something to the reader.

If I say in a poem "the ray of love's new life", I'm telling you something.  Not only am I talking about love, but I'm talking about the rebirth of love, and the comparison to light means I think it's a good thing.  If, on the other hand, I say "Love's storm-clouds gather", immediately the image is of dark and foreboding clouds on the horizon, which looks at love in a new way.

In this type of poem, get rid of extraneous and elaborate words and description, unless they actually support your message.  There's nothing worse than a poem which makes a good point in three verses and then proceeds to hammer it home with twelve!  The wonderful thing about poetry is how it makes the best use of language, style, structure, everything that goes into a poem, to condense big ideas into a much smaller space than might otherwise be necessary.

A common sort of mistake in poetry is using big words to sound more intelligent.  But sometimes, you only need a short word, and more often than not, you're better to use that.  In "message" poems, you want to *communicate* with your reader first and foremost, and excess words and elaborate description simply get in the way.  Believe me.

Descriptive
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Another common type of poetry.  A scene is described in vivid detail, using language to paint a scene in words.  Here is where your long phrases and elaborate descriptions really come into their own.  You want to hammer home (but not excessively, of course) each description, make the scene live.  

However, I find that the best descriptive poems have some sort of point, some message conveyed by the words and reinforced by the images.  A beautiful rose garden in a dew-filled May dawn is all very well, but the poem will mean a lot more to the reader if the rose is written to represent someone's heart and shredded or treated with care accordingly.  And then there are the thorns.  I'm still keeping this type distinct from the message poem, because the description *is* the poem, and the message is there because the most beautiful things in life are in the eye of the beholder, and you need to give the reader a reason to keep reading.


Story
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Need I really say more?  I've read some fantastic horror story-poems, where the ability of the poet to change the pace or reinforce key ideas in the poem can be really used to change the mood of the poem (Think about "The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes as an example).  Epic tales of heroes of myth and legend are often put into rhyme and were of old.  One thing to bear in mind in this case is that even a story poem should have a beginning, middle and end.

Dark
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A poem which highlights the darkness behind the light, which deals with humanity's greatest fears.  A poem that reflects the cynical voice within all of us.  A poem written to turn and face the dark.  This is a type of poem that's all about atmosphere.  It's only really effective if it scares the reader.  Therefore everything has to work together, and the language and imagery should be full of vivid detail and disturbing contrasts.  "The blood moon shone" for example.  And language trick which gives the reader a sense of unease helps.

Rhyme can work in dark poems: think about "The Highwayman" again, where the repetition and the rhyme contribute to emphasise the dark mood of the poem.  But for the majority of dark or horror poems, free verse is the simplest and most effective.  It takes a great deal of effort and skill to make the rhyme work.

In general
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The language changes the tone of the poem.  In a dark or horror poem, if you use smooth, silky phrases you get a gradual build-up of almost seductive tension.  If you use harsh, direct language, you get an immediate tone of fear and terror.  Choose images carefully, because they can make or break a poem.  Contrasting images work and can create a feeing of emphasis, but a jumble of images which all send different messages just clouds the meaning of the poem and detracts from the reader's appreciation.

A story-type poem needs a certain amount of action or dialogue to keep it moving.  It's not so important as in stories, but still, a continual description of events and environment is not enough to make a story.  It *is* enough in the case of a descriptive poem.  

The message?
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Everything in a poem contributes to the overall message.  Consider each image, each adjective.  Remove excess words: if you need more syllables, try not to use the over-used 'do', 'just' that sort of thing.  Consider how the word you've chosen adds to the air of the poem.  And read it over at the end, and try to be objective.  Don't be afraid to edit: you can always change it back later if you change your mind.
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