Ways to revise a poem

Hints for my Brandeis Students....


1. Read your poem backwards (last line first, first line last) and see how it changes your poem. Sometimes this can be surprisingly helpful as it makes you look at your lines and the progression of your poem differently.

2. Change your pronouns. If you have a poem written in the first person (me/I), change it to second person (you) or third person (he/she/they).

3. Change your verb tense. If it's written in past tense (I walked) try present (I walk) or future (I will walk)

4. Change the lengths of your lines-- make them shorter or longer. Play with the word you break the line on, can you make it stronger? For example if your line is “listening to him I wanted to kill time playing hang man”- Which is more dramatic/interesting:

Listening to time I wanted to kill time
playing hangman

OR

Listening to him I wanted to kill
time playing hang
man

5. Read your poem out loud. (You can do this when no one else is around). Are there parts that are harder to say out loud than others? See if you can make them flow better.

6. Identify and dispose of any cliches you have in your poem. Cliches are phrases that everyone knows and uses when they need any easy way to describe things- “fits like a glove,” “white as snow,” “every color of the rainbow” etc.

7. Avoid vague images... you're looking at a red oak or a willow or a cyprus not a tree.

8. Focus on the imagery in your poem. Use all of the senses- sight, sound, smell, taste and touch to explore your images. Can you find a more original image for what you're trying to express?

9. Try to avoid using abstract words- love, justice, hate, loneliness etc. Instead, use concrete words and images that you can experience (be specific). Instead of “he looked sad” – you can't literally see sadness, “he stared at the rotting strawberries in the last of our garden” This is a terrible, terrible example and I know you can come up with something better, but it gives you the general idea of how to use an image to convey an emotion.

10. What can you cut without damaging your poem? This can be the hardest part but also the most important. Identify the center of your poem (the main idea or emotion you're trying to get across), cut anything out of your poem that doesn't directly contribute to emphasizing this point. No matter how pretty or awesome it is, if it's not helping to push the poem forward, it has to go. The good news is that you can always save it and use it for a different poem.



Hopefully these suggestions can help you get started. The last one that can really be the most helpful is to ask someone else to read your poem and then have them identify suggestions 5-10 — sometimes you just need someone to read it who isn't quite as in love with it as you are.


Any other poets who may still occasionally read this blog...feel free to contribute your own advice