PD30 Day 9: How to Write in Meter If You Have Two Left Feet

Today’s poetry post is by guest writer Ellen Goldstein

Although it may seem as if writing a sonnet in rhyming iambic pentameter is like trying to juggle while riding a unicycle, you can actually break a formal poem into parts and write it in stages. The first stage is to work on your poem until you have your first stab at meter, and everything is said more or less how you want to say it. (These often have to be done at the same time, because if you are too set on your word choice, it is harder to put a poem into meter. Trust your poem; let it lead you to places you may not have otherwise gone.) Then work on the rhyme. Once you have the rhyme, go back to words that aren’t quite what you mean and meters that are wildly irregular, and tighten them all up. Here’s some help with meter, which can be the most intimidating step.

First, start hearing meter

Read poems in meter. Shakespeare’s sonnets are brilliant and are great for learning to hear a strong iambic pentameter. However, we don’t write like Shakespeare anymore, so make sure you read contemporary formal poetry as well. Some online journals that publish formal poems are Barefoot Muse, Able Muse, Mezzo Cammin, and Poemeleon (see their first issue, which is devoted to formal poetry).

Listen to song lyrics. Where does the musical beat fall in the line of a song? How does the singer articulate the lyrics? Songs can help you hear the tension between words and meter.

Start scanning things. Scan anything you see: subway ads, billboards, your friend’s names, newspaper headlines, agenda items for a meeting at work, book titles on your shelves, the cereal box (but not the ingredients-if you can’t pronounce it, you can’t scan it), bumper stickers, and campaign slogans. Hearing meter becomes easier the more you try.

Second, begin to write in meter

Start small. If you’d like to write in iambic pentameter (Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? or comPARE, comPARE, comPARE, comPARE, comPARE), try writing a few lines that have five strong beats in them. Worry about cleaning up the unstressed syllables later. You can include a little meter in one of your poems. A line of meter could give needed emphasis in an otherwise free verse poem.

Experiment. Read John’s post about the different kinds of meters and write a couplet using a combination of meters. There are a lot of set meters, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make up a few more.

Recycle. Take an unfinished poem and try to put it in meter. Maybe you have four lines you really like, but which never went anywhere. See if you can add two more stanzas of four line each and a couplet ending. Make it into a sonnet. The discipline could take you somewhere you never expected.

Cheat. There’s even an official name for it: metrical substitutions. So you’re writing in dactylic trimeter (OCTopus, OCTopus, OCTopus), and five lines in, you just can’t quite get the last dactyl; make the last dactyl a trochee (BEANbag). If you make metrical substitutions too often, you will lose the meter altogether. However, a few variations keep the diction of your poem fluid and conversational, rather than mechanical.

Read your work out loud. Listen to where the beat falls in the line. Have a friend read your work out loud. See if she reads it differently. Not everyone scans poems the same way. Dissertations have been written about this.

Have fun and don’t panic; I promise it will get easier.

Today’s Poetry Prompt

Write a blank verse poem. Blank verse has meter, but no rhyme. The typical meter for blank verse is iambic pentameter, but you can try other meters as well. If you want an added challenge, include the word “line”.

Author’s Bio

Ellen Goldstein got over her sonnet-phobia a few years ago, and has been an enthusiastic formalist ever since. Her formal and free verse poems can be found online at Three Candles Journal, qarrtsiluni, New Hampshire Review, and StorySouth, as well as on the page at Mid-American Review and Measure.

Related links

• 30 Poems in 30 Days set for September (0.500)
• All About 30 Poems in 30 Days (0.500)
• PD30 Day 1: I Believe in Poetry (0.500)
• PD30 Day 2: Generally Be Specific (0.500)
• PD30 Day 3: A Review of Meter (0.500)