Blog 34: The Shape of the Poem

GCSE English has done the disservice of convincing generations of writers that their poetry must fit inside the strict boundaries that existed in the classics. I spent years trying to find my own creative voice because I was too busy focusing on the form of my poem. The years studying Shakespeare and his sonnets throughout my teenage years led me to believe that I too had to count the syllables in each of my lines and follow a specific meter or rhyme scheme, and write my poem into the shape of a classic fixed form.

I was always aspiring to achieve the level of greatness often associated with the likes of Shakespeare despite never actually enjoying his writing. (I know, how controversial.) I think that this was because the notion of a classic poet instantly conveys associations of success and legacy. I wanted to emulate these writers who have continued to exist in the minds of writers and readers for generations after their death. But because of this, I wasted years writing inauthentic, clunky, and often clichéd poetry. I had the ideas, I had the imagery, and I had the passion, but I didn’t have my own style because I was confining myself inside of centuries old literary ‘rules’. You see, the shape or form of the poem is important, but it certainly doesn’t need to follow a restrictive fixed form.

What is the shape of the poem?

The shape of the poem is created by the creative utilisation of stanzas and line breaks. It is how you choose to place the words in your poem; it’s the contrast between the black of the ink and the white of the page. The whiteness is often overlooked as it seemingly has nothing to do with the work of the poet, but it is the space that we reside in. That whiteness is the border between expression and silence.  It is at least half of the overall page, an almost yin and yang that needs each other for completion and wholeness. Using the white of the page creates silence for ideas, questions and themes to develop in the mind of the reader.

British poet, Glyn Maxwell, says that ‘the white is everything but me, and the black is me.’ We can view the white as space for the reader to ruminate and the black as the content that the reader is reflecting upon. The shape of the words on the page represents the physical embodiment of the content. It conveys the emotion woven into the text and shapes how the poem should be read to further the poet’s intention. These shapes can be created by fixed forms such as the sonnet, sestina, villanelle, haiku and tercet, or they can be created with an open form by mimicking an element within the poem. For example, structuring a poem into the shape of a paragraph without line breaks to convey a sense of rushed urgency.

It wasn’t until attending university and researching modern poets that I finally let go of the poetic ideals from my youth. It was then that I was also able to put a name to my preferred form of poetry, the open form.

What is an open form in poetry?

Open form poetry does not adhere to the traditional bounds of poetry. It deviates from regular line and stanza structure. Instead, it reflects the emotions, energies and themes encountered and conveyed by the poet or poetic speaker.  Unlike in fixed forms of poetry, the line and stanza breaks in an open form poem do not follow a strict pattern. The dispersal of lines depends on the imitation of intervals of breath. Long lines can indicate panic and long lines can indicate lingering, the white space acts as the silence. This breath guides the reader through how they understand the content, voice and tone of the poem. Another term you may have heard of is free verse. This too is a type of poetry that does not conform to a specific meter. The line length, stanza length and use of rhyme is irregular, and is instead replaced with a variety of poetic technique to mimic the rhythms of speech, such as repetition, assonance or anaphora. A vast range of modern poets employ a variation of open form techniques throughout their work. Here are some examples:

  Jason Allen-Paisant – Self-Portrait as Othello        Caleb Femi - Poor

               Joelle Taylor – C+nto & Othered Poems

What is a fixed form in poetry?

In poetry, the term fixed form embodies the types of poems that are structured using a fixed pattern. This pattern is the primary source of rhythm and will often be created through a specific meter and rhyme scheme. Here are some examples of fixed forms:

• Haiku – an unrhymed form of Japanese poetry that uses the imagery of nature to often focus on a fleeting moment that coveys a sense of insight. It consists of seventeen syllables separated into three lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven in the second and five in the third line.

  
  

• Limerick – a form of short and humorous verse. The single stanza consists of five lines with the rhyme scheme AABBA. The dominant meter is anapestic (a metrical foot consisting of two short or unstressed syllables followed by one long or stressed syllable), with two metrical feet (stresses) in the third and fourth lines and three feet in the others.

  
  

• Tanka – (from tan, ‘short’ and ka ‘poem’) is an unrhymed Japanese lyric poem composed of thirty-one syllables. These syllables are divided into five lines, with the first and third lines containing five syllables and the second, fourth and fifth lines containing seven syllables.

  
  

• Sonnet – originates in Italy and translates to ‘a little song’. It is a form with multiple variations consisting of fourteen lines that traditionally reflects upon a single sentiment with a clarification in its concluding lines. The fourteen lines in a Shakespearean sonnet are condensed into one stanza of three quatrains and a final concluding couplet, with the rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG. The Petrarchan sonnet divides these fourteen lines into two stanzas, the first being an eight-line stanza (octave) with the rhyme scheme of ABBAABA, and a six-line stanza (sestet) rhyming CDCDCD or CDECDE. The Italian sonnet is an English version of the Petrarchan sonnet. The octave’s rhyme scheme remains the same, but the sestet’s rhyme scheme becomes CDDCEE.

  
  

• Ballad – a musical and traditional oral form of poetry that often tells a narrative or dramatic story. They typically utilize a form of rhymed quatrains alternating four-stress and three-stress lines and have a rhyme scheme of either ABAB or ABCB.

Ultimately, it is your creative decision as to whether you employ a fixed form or open form in your poem. Do you want to work with the restriction of a fixed pattern to convey a sense of restriction within the theme? Maybe you just want to challenge yourself as a poet by shaping your content inside the confines of a sonnet or haiku. Or do you want to experiment with the creative freedoms and structures of the open form? Do you want to emulate the desired effects of the imagery and senses embedded throughout the poem with the flow and dispersal of line placement? Use your poetic license to explore the variation of form until you find a structure that fuses with your personal voice and style.