Meter in poetry: Part Three of Lesson 15 of Writing How to Get Started

More poems, 2 writing experiments:: poetry and prose

image by Jr Korpa on Unsplash.

Before we look at the poems by Hopkins and Clampitt, how and why they started late, let’s talk about METER. Lots of poems are easier to read than these two late, brilliant “starters”. A look at METER will help us as writers of prose or free verse.

When we look at a poem’s shape on the page, let’s ask Auden’s question: “Here is a verbal contraption. How does it work?” It’s the q. I introduced to you in "Why Prose Writers Should Read Poetry".

In some sense, looking at a poem might be compared to looking at a painting. When you go to a museum and stand before a framed painting, you know instinctively that the form of what see is part and parcel of how it communicates to you. There’s no way to separate those two: the form and its communication.

If the fact that a poem sits on the page in a form is so obvious, why do I think it’s so important to talk about? Because FORM, what form your writing will take, informs meaning. Form is inseparable from meaning in both poetry and prose. At this point in Write it!, poetry helps focus the questions that surround creativity.

Poetry is poetry because rhythm drives the poem, is essential to its meaning—even if that rhythm doesn’t follow a prescribed form. You know it’s a poem when you see it, but primarily, you know it’s a poem because you hear its rhythm.

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Table of Contents for all 19 Lessons

Meter explained with voice and writing experiments for paid subscribers: