Write Poetic Pictures 
That Draw A Reader

By

Mona Hodgson

 

 

Maya Angelou, Gerard Hopkins Manley, and Lucy Shaw convey more of a message in 200 words than many prose writers do in 1000 words. How do they do it? 

 

They are poets who learned to choose and blend words as Michelangelo arranged colors on his canvas. These poets create vivid word images that draw readers into their verse. We can, too. Through the use of figurative language. Symbolism, metaphors, similes, and personification can help create tangible word pictures for your reader.

 

SYMBOLISM

A symbol is an object that represents something else. Many times the mention of a particular item will produce a parallel in the reader's mind. The American Flag symbolizes the United States, hotdogs typify baseball, and diapers represent a baby.  

 

Think of a symbol as any image that resounds with meaning and recurs throughout your poem. Using symbolism in your writing puts the abstract or illusive into terms your readers couldn't otherwise see or understand. In Maya Angelou’s poem, Ailey, Baldwin, Floyd, Killens, and Mayfield, she used a fallen tree as the symbol of the death of loved ones.

The Key

Use symbols your readers will relate to. Make sure you know your audience. Will your intended readers understand cultural symbols, such as: stop on red, go on green?

 

Your Turn

What might the following things symbolize?

A grapefruit -

A chandelier -

Laughter -

 

As you read poetry, including your own, look for symbolism. Might it be an effective tool in that poem you’re writing or rewriting?

 

METAPHOR 

Metaphor implies a comparison by saying, this is that. Familiar examples include: “God is my rock,” “Love is a rose,” and “She is a busy bee.” The words, like or as, aren't used in a metaphor.

 

In Viola Jacobson Berg’s poem Prayer of A Lamp, she creates a metaphor, presenting herself as a lamp. She asks the Lord to cleanse her with the abrasive of His discipline. She carries the metaphor throughout the poem with words and phrases such as: polishing cloth, chimney, wick, charred edges, oil and fire.                          

 

The Key

Avoid mixing metaphors unless you are using them for a humorous effect.

 

Your Turn

Choose one of the following objects (or all of them, one at a time) to use for comparison: a prism, a creek, a time clock, or provide your own.

 

Brainstorm, listing all related images, functions, and properties of that object.

 

Brainstorm, listing an emotion, situation, or experience you want to convey. For instance: victory, birth of a grandchild, loneliness.

 

Now combine the two lists, choosing words and phrases from the object list and joining them with words and phrases from the emotion, situation, or experience list.

 

Go over your new list and eliminate any illustrations that aren’t consistent with your metaphor.

 

That done, you have the foundation for a poem.

 

SIMILE

A simile relates one thing to something else, usually using like or as to state the comparison. For example, here are some familiar ones: “She is busy as a bee,” “He is hard as nails,” or “He paced like a caged tiger.”

 

The Apostle John used many similes in Revelation. In describing his vision in Chapter 1:12-16, John said, the Son of God’s head and hairs were white like wool, as white as snow and His eyes were as a flame of fire. John used wool, snow, fire, brass, waters and the sun to describe what he saw.

 

William Wordsworth began his poem The Daffodils with a simile. “I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o’er vales and hills.”

 

Tips

Think and collect images, recording them in a notebook.

Avoid the familiar image.

Offer a fresh comparison.

Liken your object or feeling to something familiar to the reader.

 

Your Turn

Complete the following sentences:

1. In a tone as sharp as a

2. Raising a puppy is like trying to

3. The path disappeared like a

 

Go through one of your poems and circle your similes. If you don’t find any, might one or more be effective? If you do find any, are they clichés or fresh comparisons?

 

PERSONIFICATION

A great deal of personification is found in the Bible, especially in Psalms where hills clap their hands, the whole earth sings and the heavens declare.

 

You'll also recognize abundant use of personification in children's stories. In Sticky Statues, and Spelling Bees from my Desert Critter Friends Series for early readers, a roadrunner wears a backpack, a porcupine is a sculptor, and a jackrabbit uses a dictionary.

 

Personification can breathe life into poetry as well. “Daffodils toss their heads in sprightly dance” in The Daffodills by Wordsworth.

 

Tips

Pay close attention to your surroundings and responses. Use all five senses--sight, sound, smell, taste, touch--can all provide new comparisons.

Play with words and their relationships.

Refuse to settle for the obvious or the dull. Avoid using clichés.

Use fresh ways to connect this to that.

Take time to let new comparisons gel. Don't rush yourself.

Brainstorm, let the ideas flow freely. Then go back and refine them later.

 

Your Turn

Pull out your file of poetry (I put copies of poems from magazines and other sources into a file folder) or settle down with a book of poems. You can do this with stories and articles, too.

Look for figurative language. Did the poet use symbolism? A metaphor? Similes? Personification? Was it an effective way to communicate?

Make it a point to study figurative language as you read. 

 

The very nature of poetry, frees poets to play with words and images. Have fun!

 

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