by Cyn Bagley

Created on: June 15, 2010   Last Updated: June 16, 2010

Writing good poetry with the right length is a much different prospect than writing a personal private poem that wails the injuries and scars of your heart. So how do you choose the right length for your skill level? Usually choosing the right length of the poem is less important than choosing the right line length. But there are skills you can use to make your poem polished and professional.

Sonnets, Villanelles, and other forms

Since free verse was invented, many poets think that it is much easier than writing the usual forms. Not so. Free verse has its own rhythms and lengths. With forms the length of the poem is already there. For instance a sonnet is fourteen lines - no more and no less. It also has a rhyme pattern, and rhythm pattern, which is iambic pentameter. If you don't know how iambic pentameter sounds like, just break open a Shakespeare play and read a few lines. You'll hear it almost immediately

Other forms like the villanelle, pantoum, and sestina have line lengths and patterns that are fun to write. It takes a lot of practice and skill to get these forms to work right near the end of the form. However, you'll find that after playing with these forms, you will soon see an increase in your poetry abilities.

One form that seems to be much easier for new writers is the haiku form. It is 17 syllables with three lines in a 5/7/5 pattern. You don't need to worry about rhyme, but you do need to be able to spark a visual image in the reader's mind.

Free Verse, Epic, and Narrative poem lengths

Like forms your free verse poem's length will change depending on what you are trying to accomplish. For instance lyrical poems are typically short. with an eipiphany. They can be anywhere from 5 lines to 12 lines, more or less. This is a rough guideline, not a rule. If you are writing narrative or epic poems with a complete story, the length can run from twenty lines to several pages. A good example of an epic poem is Beowulf.

Walt Whitman's free verse is usually long with an image or feeling attached to it. One of my favorites "O, Captain, my Captain,' a memorial poem of Lincoln, evokes the sadness of losing a great president at the helm of a country.

Editing your poetry

Your first draft should not be your last draft of your poetry. To get it polished, I was given advice from one of my English professors when I was getting my English degree. She said that once you have finished writing a piece, then go back and kill 15 percent of what you have written.

Look for words that don't add to the meaning of your poem. Do you need that an, a, the? Do you have too many adverbs or adjectives? Does the poem read well for clarity? Clarity means - does the poem have a meaning and can you see it?

Once you have edited the poem, it might be a lot shorter (or longer if you want to fill out some of your metaphors).

When you are deciding on the length of your poem, you can remember that forms have the length already part of the poem. When you deal with free verse, epic, or narrative poetry, then you need to write the full poem and then edit. Make sure that your poem is really saying what you think it is saying. Sometimes it is a good idea to drop the poem for a few days and then come back to it when you edit. And whether you write long or short poetry, the effort you put into polishing your poem will be worth it.

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