Writing Focus: Verse Poetry

Verse poetry is one of the simplest and most well-used ways of writing poetry. On Mibba, the verse poetry section is full of amazing poets and heart-wrenching tales, told within such a small confine. But there is often confusion as to what a verse poem constitutes. In this week’s Writing Focus article, we’ll be taking a look at verse poetry, and what you have to do to make a verse poem.

What Is Verse Poetry?

Verse poetry is a type of poetry that, much like sonnet form, follows quite strict rules. Although there is no specified amount of syllables set up, a verse poem will follow a strict syllable count of its own making, as well as ensure that each stanza (block of text) is set up in a similar fashion to the last. For instance, a verse poem could contain five stanzas, all with four lines that contain seven syllables each. Another example could be a three-stanza poem, with each stanza containing six lines that contain four syllables each. Due to this, verse poetry appears very uniform in structure.

Tips

As with every type of poetry, don’t force it! Trying to squeeze words and sentences into lines can cause a poem to appear stilted and jerky, even if you’ve taken care with the uniformity. If your poem is too difficult to convert into a verse style, then you may be better looking at another structure for your poem.

Don’t always stick to the strictest rules, either! If you’ve got one or two lines that stray from your set syllable count, or you want to end on three lines instead of four then go right ahead! Poetry is all about creativity and your own style of writing, so if you want to make slight alterations, that’s fine! As long as most of your poem follows a regular structure, it can be classed as verse poetry on Mibba.

Prompts

Looking to improve your verse poetry writing skills? Check out these prompts for some ideas!

1. Think about a specific part of nature. In five stanzas, each with four lines and twelve syllables per line, describe what that part of nature means to you.
2. Describe a relationship that you treasure. Do this by using only four stanzas, each with four lines and a syllable count of your own choice.

Although it is an incredibly common form of poetry, verse poetry can be beautiful to read and therapeutic to write. So what are you waiting for? Head on over to the verse section now, or write your own!

Special thanks to elixir and Goddess_Of_Muse for editing!