Introduction

Welcome to part 2 of the Poetry Basics blog series! If you missed part 1 where I shared some inspiration, ideas, and helpful resources, you can find that here.

In today’s post, I will be talking about the actual writing process – How to Write the First Few Lines. Without further ado, let’s get right on with it!

Beginning Your Poem

Let’s start at the very beginning – a very good place to start!

When writing your poem, it is important to begin it with some powerful lines. The first few lines are your opportunity to grab the reader’s attention, so put that opportunity to use!

To illustrate my point, let us take a quick look, line by line, at the first stanza of a poem. It begins:

A cottage stands forgotten.

Does that first line of poetry grab your attention? Does it make you want to read more? As a full sentence, it is its own complete thought, but there is still some mystery about it.

Let’s look at the second line now.

A cottage stands forgotten.
I know not why.

Instead of answering the mystery introduced in the first line, the second line only serves to add mystery to the poem. This draws the reader into the piece and encourages them to read on…

A cottage stands forgotten.
I know not why.
I saw it in the shaded woods,
As I was strolling by.

While the first stanza could certainly stand alone as it’s own piece, the topic could still be explored further – as evidenced by the two stanzas left to this poem.

As in the first installation of this series, I have use one of my poems as an example. The poem used in this post is Cottage in the Woods.

Conclusion

It is important to catch the reader’s attention with the first few lines of poetry. For when captivated by the first few lines, the reader will want to read the poem through to the end.

P.S. You can also follow me at my other blog, Kenmore Pines 1, here.

To learn more about this blog check out my blog launch post here.