{"id":1482,"date":"2021-08-11T09:33:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-11T13:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/?p=1482"},"modified":"2021-08-11T09:33:00","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T13:33:00","slug":"putting-poems-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/2021\/08\/11\/putting-poems-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting Poems In"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On June 30, 2020, RedTrumpetWriter wrote, I was wondering how you came up with the epic poetry you wrote in the Bamarre stories, Gail, and some of the songs\/poetry you\u2019ve included in other stories like Stolen Magic. I would like to include something like that in a book I\u2019m working on but I guess I wasn\u2019t really sure where to start, like what examples I should look at or if there was any sort of formula that you followed. I\u2019ve done a bit of looking but I was wondering if you had any tips\/advice that would help me as I found what you did really immersive and such a cool part of the worldbuilding. (if anyone else has ideas they are welcome to chime in as well!)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erica wrote back, I would recommend reading a lot of poetry and lyrics to find a style you like, and then going for it. Also, there was a post about including songs in your writing a while back (http:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/01\/tra-la-la\/<\/a>). That might be helpful too.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I wrote, I\u2019d suggest reading ballads, which I did when I wrote The Two Princesses of Bamarre.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love questions about poetry! We can make poems work for us in lots of ways in our stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Two Princesses<\/em>, I read fifteenth century English ballads, like \u201cBarbara Allan.\u201d I\u2019m sure you can find examples online, but my source was Volume 1 of The Norton Anthology of English Literature<\/em>, which most public libraries are likely to have. \u201cBarbara Allan\u201d doesn\u2019t strictly follow ballad meter, but it\u2019s close, and it does follow the ballad\u2019s simple rhyme scheme.\u00a0 You can look up ballad meter online, but my source is The Teachers & Writers Handbook of Poetic Forms<\/em>, a super useful book if you\u2019re interested in writing poems\u2014or more poems. I go back to it often. Just saying, the ballad form is pretty easy. I\u2019d suggest picking simple rhymes, not only if you’re a beginner. Simple rhymes give the poet the most options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m glad RedTrumpetWriter mentioned worldbuilding, because poems can help define the world of our stories, whether they\u2019re fantasy or not. In Two Princesses<\/em>, they establish a heroic culture. In The Lost Kingdom of Bamarre<\/em>, they highlight the martial nature of the Lakti and the artistic aspect of the Bamarre. In A Ceiling Made of Eggshells<\/em>, poems add depth to Jewish culture of the time. Mine were inspired by The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse<\/em>, in which the poems were translated as prose. I had fun turning their themes back into verse, and the ideas in them were unlike anything I\u2019d write on my own, so they broadened me. In my forthcoming Trojan War book, Sparrows in the Wind<\/em>, the poems are modelled on my idea of a Greek chorus, because in school, I loved the Greek chorus in classic Greek plays. My chorus is three crows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are lots of options!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can also use poetry for other aspects of fiction. In Stolen Magic<\/em>, I was thinking of limericks, and they reveal a lighthearted side of the dragon detective Meenore\u2014so they add to character development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know a poet who, as a child, spoke only in iambs (meter\u2014da DUM, da DUM) to a friend, who answered the same way. This says a lot about who they were! You can invent characters who speak in rhyme or who use poetic devices, like alliteration, in their dialogue, combining dialogue and character development. Or a character can decide, for an entire week, never to use the word but. What do these proclivities say about a character\u2019s personality, specifically, spontaneity? If these practices are kingdom-wide, for example, we\u2019re back to worldbuilding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can\u2014but we don\u2019t have to\u2014stick to one kind of poem in a novel. In Lost Kingdom<\/em>, the Lakti sing simple warrior songs, while Bamarre poetry is more varied and complex. And Bamarre proverbs are short rhyming poems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poems can even be used for setting. In Two Princesses<\/em>, a poem by Drualt describes a prison. We could use a poem even more directly for setting. Suppose a character is stuck in a labyrinth, and the only way out is to say a rhyming poem while the way unwinds\u2014but the labyrinth will complicate itself again if the character stops speaking. This one even advances the plot too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can imagine poetry contests that will advance the plot too. Our villain can cheat! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve used poetry for spells too, sometime in made-up languages, which move my story along. Rhyming is easy when we\u2019re inventing the words!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And poetry is a subtle instrument, which I love about it. It\u2019s hard to hit a reader over the head with a poem!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of editors have suggested that I write a whole book in verse. Might be fun, but I\u2019m a slow enough writer as it is. Writing poems, for me at least, is slower going than writing prose. And I worry that writing only in verse would leach the fun out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re not confident as a poet, I\u2019d suggest leaning on forms, which will support you with structure. Forms help with where to end a line, whether or not to rhyme, and sometimes with length. I\u2019d suggest also reading about rhyme because I think you\u2019ll be surprised by the possibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are three prompts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n