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2008 Was the year I dived into creative writing first it was fictitious prose writing to drama (All kinds, from tragedy to tragicomedy) and then later poetry. I started out with quatrains then divided my poem in four stanzas, that is sixteen line poem that contains four quatrains I made sure to use a simple rhyme scheme that is ABAB and it was difficult having to fit in rhymes because it limits the range to which a poet can't fully express a poetic license, now what's a poetic license?
POETIC LICENSE licentia poetica
In Literature this is a freedom given to a poet to improvise on language structure, spelling pattern and generic normality so as to create a whole new idea for aesthetic effects in a poetic work of art, this also includes disobeying the law of English writing like spellings, capitalization of words at the beginning of a writing and importing native language of one's mother tongue in a poetic piece (See Niyi Osundare's anthology; The word is an egg)
So many writers do not understand the concept of poetic license and most times they end of criticizing my work as a result of what they call grammatical ineptitude.
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As a poet I spent 5 years mastering the art of poetic license, that was when I started writing free verses, blank verses instead of the Shakespearean sonnet and the Petrarch sonnet (This sonnet have fourteen lines, four quatrains and a couplet) I mastered the art of using lierary devices like enjambment, irregular stanza patterns, rhyme scheme patterns and a whole lot more as well. It was not easy playing by poetic rules that's why most 21st century poets now embrace free verse which has no definite poetic structure or rhyme scheme as well. This way it became better to paint beautifully the essence of their emotions, after all poetry is about using words to create an emotional effect.
USING POETIC DEVICES THAT APPRECIATES POETRY.
People feel the act of writing poetry is very simple now this is wrong. Without the essential ingredient then a creative writing becomes a prose work, it's the appreciation of a poem that makes it a poem, the ability to see the beauty and the craftsmanship of a beautiful poetic work of art is literary appreciation, to break down a poem's essence and relay it's beauty one by one, that's why most of my poems have literary appreciations.
ALLITERATION
This is the repetitions of consonant sounds in a poetic work. This may not have physical aesthetics, but in well spoken order, it makes verses in poems have a rhythmic effect, bringing out a type of sound pattern that makes the poem sound like a song, this also goes with assonance that deals with vowel sounds. For example
Like a crazed fire, razing a dazed heart
Here there was an effect of assonance which saw a repetitions of vowel sounds in the excerpt above.
Cackled came the cock, the morning's cup
Here there was the repetitions of consonants sounds for a rather musical effect to the essence of poem.
It's very tricky using assonance, consonance and alliterations as well because it would take a wide knowledge of consonants sounds and vowel sounds to put it perfectly well
METAPHORS & SIMILE.
This is the mother of comparisms, both directly and indirect, the former and the later. Many people so not know the effects of this tool/figure of speech. Sometimes for a poet to paint mental picture he will need basically to describe things, situations and scenarios by making comparisms to what his readers already knows, by this giving them a tip of the iceberg of what he exactly wants to say. "THE WORD IS AN EGG" for example is a vivid example of a metaphor, while "THE WORD IS LIKE AN EGG" makes it Simile totally basical comparisons but indirectly and directly.
the coming of the night;
it's like winter changing into summer;
the cacophonous sounds of the wildlife
deep in the glade
serenade the still nights
as the wind clatters the windows.
sifting the grasses and whooshing in distance
yet silently still, so sonorous
This is an excerpt from a poem I wrote and when appreciated carefully you'd see the effect of Simile which helps in conveying mental pictures. The seven foot stanza used simile in the second line of the poem.
IMAGERIES.
Imageries is painting mental picture with literary devices like metaphors that appeals to the five sense. Using imagery can appeal to the senses, the different organs of sensory in the body can sense a well written imagery, expecially that of the sight and that of the olfactory sense which is often used by most writers (This can be seen in Juliet's appraisal of Romeo) and in rare occasion, the sense of touch as well.
Like floral flight of fancy
a radiant burst of minty fragrance,
painting a scarlet dusk with a touch of orange
a gracious pint of flush,
ressurecting the nasal aesthetics
like the sixth sense awakening
aroma etched perfectly traveling
to bus stops unreachable
This is a beautiful piece I titled THE REDOLENCE OF HER COLOGNE
from a vivid look this stanza appeals to the sense of smell (The olfactory organ) painting the fragrance of a feminine perfume.
CONCLUSION.
In a nutshell every poet is blessed with a persona a different perspective to which they create their literary work of art. This perspective makes up the essence of a poet and these characteristic are the way and method through which a poet's work is being recognised even when their names are not added to their poetic pieces.
This uniqueness makes poetry vast and colourful, from blank verse to free verse, irregular poems with or without stanzaic divisions rhyming poems, sonnets, ballads, ode to haiku and even couplets.
In other words every poet possess a certain uniqueness that discerns them, that poets decides to leave the comfort zone of the regular poetic writing doesn't make them poetically ignorant as a few critic will suggest.
Written & edited
By @Josediccus
6/9/2018
"Steemian Mantra"
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JOSEPH C.IKECHUKWU
