Mostly, we are not born poets. However, students receive assignments to write poems for their English 101, English 102, English Literature and other similar classes. While finding some rhymes is not a big deal, writing real poetry is a challenging task. Here are some tips to make you started. They apply to any poem assignment your professor can come up with.

Do not start “from afar”, let the first line be your advertisement – try to make your reader interested. Do not distract the reader from the topic. Whatever it was – realistic or abstract, or even if it did not exist. Try to write something substantial. Close your eyes and imagine the overall impression of what you have done. Remove excess, add the missing. Try not to allow empty and passing lines. If there are any, postpone the poem, and return to it in an hour or a few days. Review and amend. The best critic for you is yourself because only you know what you wanted to write. Do not let this wonderful assistant sit idle. If you write in a classic manner, evaluate whether everything in your poem is digestible and readable. You may want to remove or replace any too harsh, troublesome or illogical elements. Remember that you have the quality of the “zest” poem. Save and do not distort it. Try to keep the rest of the text in the service of your idea. The main thing is to stop in time. Avoid “verbal diarrhea.” Just tell yourself “stop!” You should keep this in mind even when the topic is broad or abstract. The longer the poem, the fewer readers will deign to read it. Write to the end. The syndrome of the “last line” is familiar to almost everyone. It is better to sit for an extra 10 minutes and come up with a decent rhyme than to kill a good impression of the whole poem. It is possible that what you invent will finally become an exclamation mark and symbolically summarize the above. Successful and well-aimed completion delights the reader. When you write a long poem, try to handle correctly EVERY IDEA you express.

If you use more words than is required for its disclosure, you risk being in the eyes of the readers of the graphomaniac, even if your work contains a serious semantic content. They simply will not notice it. This is permissible for prose, but not verses.

Don’t Forget about Grammar

It is the basic mistake of students writing poems as academic assignments. When it comes to essays, students pay attention to proofreading the text, but when writing lyrics, it seems close to unnecessary. Lots of great poets were not very good with grammar and spelling, some of them had editors and correctors, some were corrected much later. However, you don’t have this luxury, and you should deal with the proofreading yourself. It is good if you can use one or two online checkers. They will offer to change words, but this is only up to you. Your primary task is not to lose points making some silly grammar omissions. Your creative mood should make your grade better, not worse.

If you are not sure you can write a proper poem and your professor expects you to come up with something decent both in content and formatting, you can address an experienced author and order a custom poem. If you decide to write on your own, we advise spending several hours reading poems of one famous poet and try to copy his style a little. Good luck!

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