Good question. It can immediately feel overwhelming to compose your first poem – we get that. While some writers find it liberating to start scribbling whatever springs to mind, for others it can be daunting to be faced with so much choice.
That’s why SoPoet rewards you for keeping it short and sweet. In that spirit, many of our poets opt to use ‘formal poetry’ – which simply means writing to set structures. This might be as simple as a set number of lines or syllables.
If that sounds stifling, fear not! Our formal structures are only there to offer a foothold in getting your first poem down. Paul Muldoon famously said that ‘form is a straitjacket in the way that a straitjacket was a straitjacket for Houdini’. If you know you have only three lines to write – and that each has either five or seven syllables – putting a poem together suddenly becomes a much more straightforward (and fun!) task.
Right now, SoPoet recognises and rewards four different poetry forms: haiku, tanka, cinquain, and Fib. We’ve popped some facts together on each of these below, to give you an idea of how to use them when jotting down your latest poetgraph.
A short Japanese poem often based around the natural world. It’s made up of just three lines, with syllable counts of 5·7·5. Famous writers include Matsuo Bashō and Kobayashi Issa. Here’s a famous haiku from Bashō:
A longer version of the haiku, used traditionally for love poetry. This one is made up of five lines, with syllable counts of 5·7·5·7·7. Famous writers include Ono no Komachi and – more recently – Machi Tawara. Here’s a great one from SoPoet user Sally Evans:
From the French word for ‘five’, this is a five-line poem which builds in syllable count – like a pyramid – before plummeting right back to where it started. Syllable counts are 2·4·6·8·2 per line. The form is thought to have been created by the unfortunately-named American poet Adelaide Crapsey. Here’s one of hers, November Night:
Based on the Fibonacci sequence, this one will appeal to maths buffs and logical thinkers, sitting at 1·1·2·3·5·8 syllables for each line. Here’s one of the very first to ever exist, as pioneered by Gregory K. Pincus:
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