Balancing Message Delivery and Language Prowess
In our inner character, poetry is powerful psychotherapy. Its emotive power connects us with various attitudes and thoughts popping up in our mind. Poetry as a genre has got an underlying process of mitigating readers’ compulsions towards social subversions. Its cathartic effect moulds our mental health implicitly. Without judging on its modes of presentation, especially in its conversion as songs, poems improve personal well-being.
Having a good poem is an outcome of the poet’s manoeuvre as well as prowess in manipulating language. As far as I am concerned in writing poems, there are some handy tips that can enable the poet to come up with a poem that “tastes good.” Writing poems is like cooking. To get an exquisite dish, you need to balance ingredients.
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A person interested in poetry can ask what makes a good poem great. The primary basis of a good poem is personal creativity that varies from one poet to another. The following are some of the aspects or handy tips necessary for a writer to consider in getting the poem that makes the reader feel attached to reading it:
i) Understanding the purpose
Before the poet composes the poem, they must understand the purpose of writing that poem. It could be writing to give an account of the past event building up the history of the poet’s and reader’s society, writing for expressing personal emotions towards the subject matter or writing to give instructions to the members of the society through the eyes of the persona. Having the purpose of composing the poem and moving with it consistently can make a good poem look extraordinary.
ii) Instant Reader-capture
The first impression normally inspires anyone in observing works of art including poems. Any writer must intend to capture the reader’s attention instantly after one’s decision to read the poem. Modern writers fulfil this handy tip by creating a poem’s title that conquers the reader to find out what the poem is all about.
Before you write, you need to figure out the heading of the poem. After writing the poem, it is important to re-check the correlation between the title and the message intended to deliver. This process can give the writer a chance to restructure the title in a good way; with the connectivity of the title and message appealing to the reader’s mind. Great poets’ titles like “Because I could not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson, and “The Dying, Child” by Freeman Peter Lwamba have a strong attachment to the content of the poem. Emotional or sensual attachment to the title enhances the reader to have a strong desire in reading the poem.
Read – Introduction to Structured Poetry by Christina Lwendo, Tanzania
iii) Language Condensation
Language economy is an ideal principle for writing poems. Poetry as an aesthetic system is governed by simple concise language in depicting the poet’s ideas. Consequently, a poem must carry many ideas infused in well-compressed language with powerful messages. The acceptable quality of the poem can easily be determined by its conciseness. For instance, Joe Corrie’s poem, ‘Eat More’ is very impressive in terms of conciseness and structural composition. It has been composed in only eight short verses. But despite being concise, different ideas have been detailed. It is possible for the literary analyst to have more than two pages describing Joe’s ideas in his poem. Poetry has got this underlying principle. Any poet ought to comply with this principle.
iv) Rhythm-Structure Amalgamation
Poems are rhythmical in nature. Effective manipulation of language allows the writer to create various musical devices to create rhythm in the poem. Composing a poem without rhythmical devices is like having a plate of a meal. Musical features embodied in poems enrich its arousal nature, particularly in expressing emotions or feelings tangibly with the aim to reveal the hidden message.
The use of alliteration, assonance, consonance and rhyme is among the poetic techniques that make the poems sound rhythmical. Musical poetic devices are very effective in carrying the message and allow the reader to find it easy in recognizing the poet’s ideas. Though, the poet can add other structural devices such as anadiplosis, anaphora or parallelism in giving the reader a chance to flow with ideas from one verse to another verse; accommodated by those sounds employed. Edgar Allan Poe said, “I Would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of beauty.” Thus, in creating rhythm in poems, word choice or arrangement forming rhythm and stylistic consideration can determine the intensity of the light cast from the poet to the reader.
v) Sensual Defamiliarization
What is intended to be communicated to the reader can be very familiar and usual. In the process of reflecting social reality for the betterment of society, the poet must find an artistic way of depicting the common idea to the reader; aiming to deliver the intended message effectively. Sensual defamiliarization is the process that involves the removal of familiarity in the reader’s sense by retaining the writer’s idea or message. This process is rooted in the use of concrete words appealing to human senses such as sensitivity to touch (feel), hear, taste, see, smell and detection to movement. These senses can be created through sense devices such as simile, metaphor, paradox, irony, allusion and other figures of speech. Employing sense devices facilitates an easy depiction of the poet’s ideas to the reader’s mind and makes the poem effectively carry out the message.
vi) Intra-textual Coherence
Poems are structured in units of verses composing stanzas. Moving from one verse to another verse, or from one stanza to another stanza needs coherence and connectivity. In creating intra-textual coherence, the poet must unify verses’ ideas from one verse to another by stylistically breaking grammatical rules through enjambment, or by creating a refrain at every end of a stanza. The use of a refrain with powerful sensation allows the reader to move with the flow of ideas from one stanza to another stanza. Nevertheless, it is not a must to involve enjambment or refrain. They are just facilitating tools for connecting the poet’s ideas. Creating the poem with intra-textual coherence appeals to the structure of the poem and holds the structural nature of the poem.
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Generally, understanding the purpose of writing the poem, effective use of poetic devices (sound devices, sense devices and structural devices) and the correct choice of the format or type of the poem (free verse poem, traditional poem, narrative poem, lyric poem, or didactic poem) can guarantee the creation of a well-structured poem delivering a powerful message to the audience. From Socrates’ point of view, it is true that it is not wisdom that enables poets to write their poetry but a kind of instinct or inspiration. This instinct enables the poets to manipulate language effectively in delivering powerful messages to the audience.
Meckson Germanus Kaboga, born in Mbeya, southern Tanzania, currently resides and works in Bukoba – Kagera, in the north-western region of Tanzania. Teaching is his profession and main activity that takes up most of his time. Kaboga specializes in Linguistics and Literature, and has developed a deep passion for literature, with streams of ideas coming in the form of verses and stanzas in his free time. In 2016, he became interested in writing poetry, and many of his works have been featured in St. Augustine University of Tanzania symposia. In 2018, Kaboga began participating in international writing affairs, particularly through Writers Space Africa. In January 2019, one of his poems titled ‘The Puzzled Hope’ was featured and published in the Writers Space Africa monthly magazine, January Edition, Issue 25 (2019). This was followed by another poem, ‘The African Sanctuary’, which was featured in the March Edition, Issue 27 (2019). Kaboga is passionate about having more recognizable literary works, particularly in poetry and short stories. This year, he plans to publish an anthology of ongoing poems that he has composed. He feels a sense of responsibility to write for social betterment.
