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