Techniques — Ellis Campbell, 8. Not Too Personal & 9. Terminology
Ellis Campbell’s Writing Techniques — 8. Don’t
Make Your Poems Too Personal
Too many poets write personal poems and enter them in competitions or
publish them in self-published books. Judges are not impressed — nor
are readers of the book. Remember that a personal poem is usually just
that. Because you are writing on a subject dear to your heart
don’t
assume that everyone will like it. Write a poem about your mates at the
bowling club and they will slap you on the back and say,
“You’re a
bloody genius! I don’t know how you do it!” Possibly the poem
has more
faults than a porcupine has quills, but they like it simply because
they are in it — and don’t know the first thing about the
rudiments of
Bush Verse.
Anyone
who does not know the characters involved will be bored to death by it.
If your dear departed Uncle Fred had been a war hero, an outback
drover, a daring lion-tamer, a distinguished buckjump rider, famous
racing car driver or some such thing it is fine to write a poem about
him. But if you are only writing about him because he was your
favourite uncle and you remember how he always gave you lollies when
you were a kid — it has to be a piece of sensitive writing or something
quite humorous. Otherwise you end up with a poem that will bore
everyone to death, excepting — maybe — a few relatives. I put this
obsession with personal poems down to lack of inspiration.
A
poet gets an urge to compose a poem but can’t think of a subject. After
sitting there day dreaming until sundown he notices old Tom from across
the road limping out to water his garden. That’s it, he thinks,
I’ll
write a poem about Tom. Unless the poet is an accomplished and
sensitive writer, this poem is doomed to failure. But the accomplished
and sensitive writers are rarely lacking in inspiration. Next:
“Padding” words to fit
Ellis Campbell’s Writing Techniques — 9. Terminology
A few months ago I wrote on Poetic Terminology and touched upon
Alliteration, Enjambment and Imagery — all important. This issue we
will look at a few more, of varying importance. “Rhyming couplet,”
means two consecutive similar lines that have end rhyming.
A “stanza” is a group of lines separated from others by a space. A
stanza can be anything from two lines up to anywhere, but I prefer
four, six or eight lines — as I have previously stated.
“Mid rhyme” or “internal rhyme” as the term implies, is simply a word in the
middle rhyming with the word at lines end. A couple of examples from my
poem The Gambling Man.
“A defacto wife named Vera stuck like glue to Dan
the shearer”.
“Like a breath of winter chillness came the hush of eerie stillness”.
Another
form of internal rhyme is when two consecutive lines have words that
rhyme in the middle and two different words rhyming on lines end.
Example from my poem, “Remember Chubby?”
“Last man in when playing cricket — never made the
foot ball team;
without score he lost his wicket, lost his cap and self-esteem”
Another example from my poem “Rescue For Rowdy”.
“A drop of bourbon he enjoyed and ouzo to relax and brandy with the unemployed, who called for little snacks”.
Onomatopoeia
is the using of sound effects to draw attention to something. “Pow! ”
“Wheooo --” “Bang!” “Whizz--”, etc. Comic books rely heavily on
onomatopoeia to get their point across.
There
is a difference in “Blank Verse” and “Free verse” but I don’t
think my
readers are too concerned about either! “Prose” is any other form of
writing other than poetry. Short stories, novels, etc.
Articles
- David Campbell —
From a Judge’s Desk - Glenny Palmer —
An Exercise in Writing Humour
“Unstrained Melody” writing tools - Ellis Campbell —
1. Rhyme and Reason
2. Rhyme
3. Metre
4. Pattern
5. Words
6. Poetic Terminology
7. Inverted Phrases
8. Don’t Make Your Poems Too Personal
9. Terminology
10. Importance of First Stanza
11. Metaphors and Similes
Finally...
But... - Noel Stallard —
Performance Tips