1. RULES OF POETRY According to Ms. Thomas, anyway

2. IT HAS TO MAKE SENSE It has to have purpose A message or understanding of the world Expression of thoughts or feelings A description Carefully placed allusions?

3. IT HAS TO SOUND GOOD Repetition of words or a word adds emphasis Consider rhythm– either deliberately creating one by counting syllables, or deliberately not having one by varying syllable counts The language Rhyming is either really great or really terrible Literary devices! Alliteration Assonance Consonance Consider creating a pattern– using sound, line length, stanza length, repetition, syllable counting

4. IT HAS TO LOOK GOOD It doesn’t look like a paragraph Stanza breaks Line breaks Punctuation Shape/position on the page

5. HOW TO MAKE A POEM

6. COMPRESSION Cut out unnecessary and/or boring words and sentences Every word and piece of punctuation adds to the sound or look of the poem Articles such as a, an, and the are often expendable, unless they add to the look and sound of the poem If a line says the same thing without a word, LOSE IT. Use it or lose it.

7. EXPANSION Add or change words to make it sound good For example, “as if” or “I remember” Use a thesaurus to find “better” words, or add a phrase instead of a word Literary devices Alliteration: first letters of the words start with the same sounds “ You gotta go and get angry at all of my honesty” Assonance: repetition of vowel sounds within words “Hello, can you hear me? I'm in California dreaming about who we used to be” Consonance: repetition of consonant sounds within words Rhyme: repetition of end of word sounds...but be warned, rhyme must accompany rhythm or it sounds bad, and rhyme with poorly chosen words is distracting Repetition

8. EMPHASIS Are words in the best order? What happens if you switch some? What do you want to emphasize? Where does it fall in the poem? Repetition Capitalization Italics Design

9. MAKE SURE IT SOUNDS GOOD Read it aloud!

10. MAKE SURE IT’S MEANINGFUL Where should each line end? Do you have a reason for ending it there? What is each stanza about? Can you identify the purpose behind each word, line, break, punctuation mark? Is there an allusion or metaphor that can help create your purpose?

11. MAKE SURE IT LOOKS GOOD Stanzas of the same or varying length? Lines of similar or varying length? One long stanza after several shorter ones? Poem centered, flush right, or flush left? Are all words traditional, or are they spaced or “lined” differently? Font? Shapes?