Poetry in practice

Write poems about particular places with advice from Doris Corti

Writing about a place may sound very easy. It is, however, important to ensure that your lines and phrases are in accord with your appreciation of the place you write about. Is there some aspect of this area that brings an emotional reaction? All of this should be in your poem. Don’t simply describe this place geographically. It can help to make general notes about it. Detail the area, whether it is inland or by the sea, or a particular town or city.

Were you happy there or do you have sad memories? Keep looking at your words and be aware of the emotion contained within them. This might be the main theme of your poem. Are you expressing this emotion clearly or perhaps you are using certain imagery to show it?

After writing these notes you might start to create the shape of a poem – by this I mean produce your words in lined form rather than in a solid paragraph. Make a new line for each turn of thought. Keep writing, holding that particular place in your mind.

At this point let instinct be foremost. When your writing loses pace, read slowly over what you have written. It is likely that the form your poem will take has been developing – this sometimes happens quite unconsciously.

Check whether you have a series of long lines, or are they short and staccato? Do the long lines hold a certain metre? If the place you are writing about has picturesque landscapes your lines could be long and flowing. If it’s somewhere in a crowded city your lines might be short, sharp and have end rhymes.

Read the lines again. Do they harmonise with your thoughts about this place? There is a restful quality in the lines that begin Robert Browning’s poem Meeting at Night.

That was a place seen at night. In another poem, A Bay in Anglesey by John Betjeman, there’s a quite different sea in his lines The sleepy sound of a tea-time tide/Slaps at the rocks the sun has dried.’

Your poem may be a cameo of a place remembered, or a place where you live. Show it to others through your words, phrases and lines.

Exercise:

The grey sea and the long black land; And the yellow half-moon large and low; And the startled little waves that leap In fiery ringlets from their sleep...

• Choose a place to write a poem about in any form up to 20 lines

• Write another poem and describe what you like most about this place.