In the late 1900s, a growth spurt took place in the poetry world. More and more young people began writing poetry. Many feel that this onset of new poets was spurred by the introduction of slam poetry and rap music. As a result, many myths were formed and taken for reality. Below are seven concepts about poetry and their arguments:

The words must rhyme:  In reality, poetry does not have to rhyme at all. It is really only good practice to ensure that it does. Every rule has an exception and this is one of them.

The size is set: It does not really matter how long the poem is. One word can say as much as 1000 and sometimes no words at all, such as we see in a painting or photograph, can say even more.

Poetry does not take much skill: In any writing, there is a certain amount of thinking that goes along with it. It is true that some poets can write poetry very quickly without much thought, but most of us have to ponder for a long while in order to create the perfect poem.

Poetry authors are often depressed: Rumi makes the statement totally untrue. Yes, some authors can write some great poetry while they are depressed, but many famous poets have written their best work while they were in love.

Making sense of it all: Most poetry does need to make sense in order for people to fall in love with it. On the other hand, dada does not make any sense at all. So it is really completely up to the poet.

You must be a great writer and editor: This statement cannot be further from the truth. Music will show us that most poetry does not have correct grammar.

You have to use big words: There is no need to use big words unless it is absolutely necessary. In fact, some of the best poetry uses no big words.

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Current, the ‘free verse’ style of poetry is the most popular. In the late 19th century, Walt Whitman is credited with originating the form. Before his time, poetry was restricted to certain rhyming schemes and forms.

Patterns are common to formal poetry. Scansion is the analyzing of rhyme and meter. A letter is commonly places at the end of each line beginning with the first letter of the alphabet A for the first rhyme, and B for the second, etc.

Using letter to signify the rhymes is a great way to determine the pattern. If line one and two rhyme, an A would be placed beside them. If line three and four rhyme with each other but not one and two, we would place B’s beside them. The pattern would be AABB. If line 5 rhymes with either, an A or B would be used. If it does not phyme, we would use a C.

Meter is the number of beats in each line. The beat most commonly used is “Iambic pentameter’. Individual beats consist of a short and strong pulse. Words with this beat are arrest, domain, forsooth, etc. The second syllable is accented.

Time for the fun stuff! When you tell stories or write letters, how do you start? Is it maybe something you overheard, or read about? Or maybe something you witnessed? Start with something that is comfortable to you.

Think of what type of poem you had in mind. Will it be a story, a comment, a character study? It is best to skim through some examples to get you started off. It is also important to take breaks like going for a walk or to bed. When you come back, jot things down. It does not have to be orderly.

Work on your poem for many weeks and take the last line of one of your poem and carry on from there, ignoring entirely what you drafted before. You will be surprised at what you are able to accomplish. Get writing!