Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    How to Write a Good Poem: Three Essential Elements
    How to Write a Good Poem: Three Essential Elements
    How to Write a Good Poem: Three Essential Elements
    Ebook30 pages25 minutes

    How to Write a Good Poem: Three Essential Elements

    By D. Patrick Miller

    3/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The publisher and author of two poetry volumes offers a concise and inspiring guide to writing a good poem. The three essential skills of Vocabulary, Compression, and Revision are explained, with helpful suggestions for practice. Includes a number of example poems by the autho. Also: live links to other helpful resources.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherD. Patrick Miller
    Release dateAug 26, 2011
    ISBN9781465877666
    How to Write a Good Poem: Three Essential Elements
    Author

    D. Patrick Miller

    Patrick D. Miller is Charles T. Haley Professor Emeritus of Old Testament Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. He is the author of numerous books, including The Religion of Ancient Israel. He is coeditor of the Interpretation commentary series and the Westminster Bible Companion series. In 1998, he served as President of the Society of Biblical Literature. He was also editor of Theology Today for twenty years.

    Read more from D. Patrick Miller

    Related to How to Write a Good Poem

    Related ebooks

    Careers For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Fifteen Poets on Revision

      Feb 27, 2018

      After 17 drafts over two weeks, Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “One Art” was completed on November 4, 1975. The poem began as notes, and evolved into a villanelle. She changed the title. She deleted words. She reached for possible rhymes. Brett Candlish Mil

      4 min read

    • Article

      Ada Limón And The Poetry Of Rebellion

      Apr 7, 2022

      You know what? I’m 45, and I get to write whatever poems I want. The post Ada Limón and the Poetry of Rebellion appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Language the Poet Knows

      Dec 11, 2018

      The Language the Poet Knows
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Poet’s Craft

      Jan 1, 2020

      To begin with a definition: A poem is a text structurally constrained by the repetition of any language element(s). The continuum of poetic constraint is extensive, stretching from operations that a reader will find completely imperceptible to overwh

      9 min read

    • Article

      Oxygen In Ash

      Dec 15, 2021

      IN OUR first COVID summer, the fires outside Fort Collins, Colorado, burned so close that ash would fall from the sky—gentle as snowflakes, gentle as the dying leaves of the honey locust tree. All the clouds were smoke, a sulfur yellow and deep purpl

      4 min read

    • Article

      Voice

      Oct 7, 2022

      We all get tired of being ourselves, sometimes. That’s one of the reasons we read, in any genre—to be transported beyond our own experiences, to consider others’ perspectives and ways of going through life, and then, to come back with a fresh outlook

      1 min read

    • Article

      Don’t Give Up

      Nov 13, 2021

      Don’t Give Up
      4 min read

    • Article

      EDITOR’S Note

      Dec 14, 2022

      THERE WAS A POINT DURING THE EDITING OF THIS ISSUE’S special section on inspiration when, I must admit, I felt a little overwhelmed by the veritable sea of ideas flooding my e-mail inbox each day, as contributors responded to my invitation to compile

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Loneliness Project

      Jun 16, 2021

      The Loneliness Project
      3 min read

    • Article

      Opportunities

      Jan 28, 2023

      Categories: Art, poetry, prose Description: Editors seek U.S. entries from emerging and established writers and artists for the 47th issue. Deadline: March 20 http://sandhillslitmag.com/submit/ Categories: Poetry, craft essays, fiction, hybrid, nonfi

      1 min read

    • Article

      Let Love In

      Jan 6, 2022

      Let Love In
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Way We Talk About Poetry Is the Problem

      Oct 28, 2021

      Favoritism, shallowness, self-dealing, competition dressed up as virtue, flatterers dressed up as sages, coteries dressed up as the elect: none of that is new. But right now, it just seems so loud. The post The Way We Talk About Poetry Is the Problem

      9 min read

    • Article

      What We Are Carrying

      Oct 12, 2022

      WHEN I was ten I wanted to learn to play the clarinet and eventually join the school band. But (or And, or So—) my father found an affordable, used, kid-sized accordion, somehow found a tutor, and that, plus his moving the whole family to an air forc

      12 min read

    • Article

      Poetic Asides

      Apr 8, 2024

      Writing poetry is very helpful for processing emotions. Fall head over heels in love? Write a poem. Tumble down the stairs of a broken heart? Write a poem. Get in a heated argument? Write a poem. Dealing with the aftermath of a tragic event? Write a

      2 min read

    • Article

      Risk A Verse

      Dec 2, 2021

      Risk A Verse
      6 min read

    • Article

      Work It Out

      Jun 1, 2023

      Work It Out
      4 min read

    • Article

      Inhabiting A Moment

      Mar 13, 2022

      In Actions and Travels you include about 100 of the “poems I love and what it is I love about them” along with a broad range of poets from around the world, younger local ones such as Hera Lindsay Bird and Tayi Tibble, and plenty of dead ones such as

      7 min read

    • Article

      Order Out of Chaos

      Oct 7, 2020

      Order Out of Chaos
      10 min read

    • Article

      Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

      May 6, 2021

      Say Hello, Wave Goodbye
      4 min read

    • Article

      Adventu Res In Poetry

      Jul 6, 2023

      It’s almost seven hundred years since Marco Polo died at the age of 69, having opened up the world of central Asia and China to the West. Although he was not the first Westerner to visit those regions, his explorations were recorded in books, the mos

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for How to Write a Good Poem

    3/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      How to Write a Good Poem - D. Patrick Miller

      How to Write a Good Poem:

      Three Essential Elements

      by D. Patrick Miller

      © 2022 by D. Patrick Miller

      SMASHWORDS EDITION

      All Rights Reserved

      Published by Fearless Books

      info@fearlessbooks.com

      Introduction: WHAT IS A GOOD POEM?

      Part 1: VOCABULARY

      Hand-copying

      Making Lists

      List for a Bad Mood (sample poem)

      List for a Long Night

      Part II: COMPRESSION

      Forms

      Lullaby

      Odyssey

      A Birthday Tanka

      Part III: REVISION

      Setting Your Poems Aside

      Broadening Your Purpose

      Early Darkness

      The Attitudes of Rewriting

      Coda

      Summary

      Introduction:

      WHAT IS A GOOD POEM?

      A good poem is a surprise; it gives the reader the unexpected gift of a striking image, a deep feeling, or a stunning insight. A good poem should also surprise the author during the process of writing it. It should give you the undeniable sensation of a prickly shiver, a strengthening of your heart muscle, or a new fold forming in your brain.

      A good poem is one of the most difficult challenges in writing. It requires at least three strong technical skills:

      Vocabulary(the words you choose)

      Compression(the arrangement of your chosen words for the greatest impact)

      Revision(the patient reshaping of your first drafts to bring your poems to their greatest potential)

      In this little book, I’m going to offer some thoughts and

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1