How to Write Serious Gothic Poetry
from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit
Do you live in a world of darkness? Always finding yourself standing in the middle of a crowded room screaming, but no one hears you? Does your pain seem endless? Gothic poetry will work for you...
Steps
- Start with a topic. This expansive genre encompasses a huge range of topics. A Gothic poem can be about anything. It's just a dark twist. Stereotypically, gothic poetry is usually about only pain and death. This isn't always true. So don't let yourself be fooled by stereotypes.
- Think of a title. The title is one of the most important parts of gothic poetry. It helps the reader gather the emotion of the poem before they read it, and to understand the poem while reading it. A good title will catch the person's eye. Just make sure you can keep their attention afterwards. It's a good idea to keep the title short, either words or syllables.
- With the hard part out of the way, outline the poem. Anything goes in this step, as you'll soon revise it. A short example: "my twisted soul can no longer fly/darkness rips at my blinding eyes"
- Capitalization isn't a big part of gothic poetry. Some poems actually come across stronger when words aren't capitalized except for the names of people, gods and goddesses.
- Punctuation is important. Another stereotype is that punctuation is absent from gothic poetry. But that's not true. Any poem, no matter the genre, would do well with punctuation.
- Because gothic poetry is dark and mysterious, it means there can't be a hint of hope and happiness and the like. Be afraid to make references to such. Work with this fear. This is another stereotype that many tend to believe. Because you write gothic poetry means you don't have some kind of happy moments, or else you barely feel them.
- Most people like rhyme. If you wish to rhyme then great! Don't TRY to make your poem rhyme though. The rhyming should always come by itself. Trying to rhyme is forcing it to rhyme, and the poem won't flow and it'll be... well not a good poem. If you want it to rhyme but have to force rhymes, then do so, but revise revise revise!
- Gothic poetry tends to be free verse. Do what you wish with the design of the poem. But make sure it's comfortable to you and you can work with it.
- Don't take yourself seriously, no matter how serious you want to be. If you write poetry that includes anything similar to "incarnadine," "blood," "torture," or any "gothic" words, you will be laughed at. Gothic is a style of architecture and a race of Northern European people.
Tips
- Gothic poetry is not always dark, no matter what they say!
- Reference Persephone (who was kidnapped by Hades and forced to live the winter of every year in the underworld), Orpheus (a poet who tried to rescue his wife from Hades), eEurydice (the wife of Orpheus), Tantalus (doomed to forever sit in pool of water with grapes hanging overhead but not be able to touch them), the Cimmerii (people who lived in eternal darkness), or other ancient Greek/Roman tragic stories are good for Epic Poetry.
- The Dictionary and Thesaurus are your best friends.
- Blood and Black aren't strong words because of their overuse in today's society; if you want something stronger, then refer to the thesaurus. Adding darkly, disturbed, literate, and twisted synonyms such as these for black: ebon, ebony, onyx, sable, dark, or pitch-dark. For blood you could use words such as vitae and gore; for red crismon, russet, carmine, bloodshot, cherry,blush, brick, cardinal, and scarlet.
- Other synonyms, if you are writing something about death, you may use:
- Massacre-- blood bath, bloodshed, blood letting, butchery, carnage, pogrom (always a jerker), or slaughter.
- Similar to this is bloody-minded: murderous, bloodthirsty, bloody, cutthroat, homicidal, sanguinary, sanguineous, and slaughterous.
- If you choose to add something from a foreign language, especially Latin, make sure you know what it means and that you'll remember it.
- Never throw out any of your poems. They're your keepsake. Your soul. Your future.
- Numbers are stronger if written out.
- Use intricate and dark words like: morbid, meloncholy, phantasmagoric, macabre, torment, eternal, decrepit, futile, deliberate, and delapidated. Try flipping through a dictionary and looking at random words, you'll most likely find some you like.If you don't know some of the words above,look them up. They are used alot as descriptions of society in gothic literature
Warnings
- Do not give in to stereotypes!
- If your parents aren't comfortable with the Gothic subculture or any of it's counterparts, make it scarce. Do not flash it in their presence. It isn't cowardly, it's self-preservation.
- Also, if they despise the "darkness" of your poetry, protect it! Parents are notrious for throwing away "trash." Chances are, that's what they think of your poetry. Suggestion: At school, carry it with you in your bookbag. All other times, keep it somewhere inconspicuous.
- Don't take criticism personally unless it goes against your beliefs.
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Sources and Citations
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