Shall I Compare Thy Writing To A Summer’s Day
Why Reading And Writing Poetry Makes You A Better Novelist
Shall I compare thy writing to a summer’s day or perhaps to a winter’s eve?
Whether you are writing prose or poetry, you are partaking in an act of creating something from words and language. There’s a lot to be said about the impact of writing on the development of humanity, society, culture, and civilization. Writing is everywhere.
Where prose — the things that are not poetry — focuses on stories or information, poetry often evokes strong emotional reactions and paints vivid imagery in our minds. Poetry, then, is perhaps the purest form of written art, more so than even the prose contained in great novels.
In understanding and appreciating poetry, writers may find themselves with a deeper comprehension for things like the power of language, word choice, the emotional depth of words, structure, form, musicality, imagination, editing, and precision.
It is, in my opinion, that an appreciation for poetry is therefore an important factor in making us stronger writers, essayists, and novelists. Both reading and writing poetry enhance a writer’s ability to craft a compelling story, create rich imagery, and evoke emotions through the use of precise language.
Syntax, Diction, and Musicality
Syntax
Poetry teaches us many things about language, namely, the economy thereof. Each word in a poem holds a significant weight to it because poems often have so few words. Compared to chapters with thousands of words, a poem could be said to average at around 100 words (or I think mine come out to that average).
The idea of an economy of words means that each word takes up space, and you, as the writer, must manage each one carefully. The word economy plays a central role in crafting poetry where a single line can be rendered perfect or terrible by the inclusion or omissions of the mot juste.
The word economy is, perhaps, a fancier way of talking about the idea of syntax. Syntax is the arrangement of words and phrases in writing into sentences, and it is of vital important to all writing whether poetic or not.
Through poetry, we can learn a lot about syntax and word economy. Take, for example, highly structured poems like sonnets or villanelles. These both operate with a confined amount of lines, words, and rhyme schemes. Each of these must be taken into account when crafting lines and stanzas. One misplaced word can create a cascade of awkward lines or lengthy rewrites.
Understanding when and where and how to use words and phrases to create lines — sentences — is imperative in poetry and translates to prose writing just as well. Learning how the words fit into one another in arrangement can help us craft better sentences in our writing.
Diction
While syntax and word economy deals with arrangement and space, there are other aspects to consider. You must also have a large vocabulary to take the most advantage of diction skills. Diction is, quite literally, the choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing. It is the actual word choice itself that is important with diction.
Poets use vivid language, rich with sensual imagery to convey the emotional weight of their poems. Given that poems have a lot less space to work with to convey such heavy things or portray a scene or present a symbol for literary analysis, the poet must use the right word in the right way at the right time to get their message across.
Poems that are short often have a good sense of diction, I find. It is in the shortest poems, then, that I think diction shines through in spades. Words are often chosen because they have layered meanings and interplay with the other words in some not-noticed-at-first way.
Diction helps in writing prose because a solid understanding of “the right words” and how word choice affects emotional impact can lead to better, enriching descriptions and lends to deeper, more meaningful emotional impacts within prose.
Musicality
Of course, syntax and diction also align with the concept of wordplay, rhythm, and musicality in writing. See, poetry has this concept called “meter” where in the lines are measured in feet and meter to help form a rhythm. These both lend to the musicality of the words.
Wordplay is a technique in literature — and wit — where the words used become the main subject of the work, usually seen best in the work of puns or other jokes. But it is a consideration to make in writing prose as well as poetry in the ways words lend themselves to each other.
Rhythm and meter are less important elements to be transferred to prose since most prose will not be using nor caring for iambic pentameter as we are not writing Shakespearean plays, but understanding the way in which poetry works can still provide some additional context, even if it is not quite necessary.
Musicality, though, is an important one. In prose, it may come across less severely. In poetry, we see musicality in songs primarily since songs are devised specifically for the ear rather than the eye and mind. Musicality can be enforced in writing by using punctuation marks and varied sentence lengths. It can also be brought upon by writing sentences and lines in ways that take advantage of word stress and other tricks like assonance, consonance, and alliteration.
Poetry, with respect to wordplay, rhythm, and meter can certainly teach novelists to play with language, enhance the flow of their sentences, and create a sense of musicality in their writing by using certain tricks to guide the reader into “hearing” the writing the way the author intended.
More Alike To Prose Than Different
Emotion
Emotion plays a pretty pivotal role in writing both prose and poetry. In nearly every genre, some emotion is at the forefront to push both reader and character forward. In poetry, it could be the reader, speaker, poet, or character.
Poetry often conveys deep emotions in a short amount of space. Through specific choices relating to syntax and diction, poets can craft resounding pieces with hefty emotional weights and invoke symbolism to help paint their images.
Novelists, on the other hand, have entire chapters to convey similar emotional tones. Granted, novelists aren’t tugging emotional strings every single paragraph. Thus, I would say they can learn from poetry here.
Where novelists do begin to sink into an emotional scene, they can use lessons from poetry to create an even deeper sense of emotion. But each form of writing does emotion very well, albeit differently given the space each has to work with.
Theme
Poetry and prose also overlap quite often on the themes covered. And it says less about the writing medium that it does about who is doing the writing: humans. People. We all write about similar things because it is the human experience.
Poetry often explores universal themes like love, death, and identity. So too does much of the written prose we read.
Romance is the largest genre of novels for a reason. Love impacts all of us in some way. Love poems, heartbreak poems, tragedies, and romance novels. Death is a constant, looming thing on the horizon. It affects us both in our understanding that we must die and in grief for those no longer with us. Identity is another key theme in a lot of poems and prose. I know that I personally write a lot of things simply to find out more about myself through my own words. Self-expression is a fundamental piece of writing which allows us to share our identities in part to the world.
I think an appreciation for poetry can help strengthen these themes in prose as well. Poets have a unique way of wrestling with themes that also appear in prose that maybe could benefit novelists particularly. Poetry deals with these themes in concise ways which are often full of symbolism and intrigue.
Storytelling
Poetry is also a form of storytelling. Poets craft narratives just as much as novelists or essayists — though they do in much more ambiguous means. Not every poem is a medieval ballad regaling us with a hero’s journey. Some narratives in poetry are much more muted and layered.
Still, narrative in poetry is seemingly overlooked and an underutilized aspect. In my own poetry, I try to tell a loose story over the course of a collection. For instance, I am compiling a collection about limerence and the toxicity of unrequited love wherein the lover worships the loved despite this. Over the collection, the narrative unfolds from simple misplaced affection to complete collapse and the eventual death of the lover.
This is similar in many ways to the idea of narrative structures in prose. We often see a three-act structure and some sort of hero’s journey. We see these story beats for what they are, and they are akin to techniques used in poetry.
Poetry, though, uses less words to try and convey their narratives, and this is perhaps where prose writers may be able to learn from poetry in respect to the syntax and diction utilized in crafting their stories. Understanding each form of storytelling allows a writer to blend them seamlessly and create even more engaging narratives than when these two forms are kept apart.
What Lies In Plain Sight
Form
When we talk about structure in prose, we are mostly referring to the narrative structure, but in poetry, it may also refer to the poem itself. Poetry lends itself to a varied array of structures — some rigid and some completely wild and free.
Traditional forms of poetry — like sonnets, haikus, and villanelles — tend to follow established and understood structures. There are, of course, many variations. Take sonnets, for example, which exist as Italian, Shakespearean, blank verse, and short line but follow the similar guiding principles of sonnets as we know them.
Novels are much the same. We expect there to be certain elements in the form of a novel, such as chapters, paragraphs, and sentences. We expect dialogue and other criteria like proper use of dialogue tags and punctuation marks (and quotation marks).
Where the freedom to explore comes in is with free verse poetry. This style of poetry is raw and emotional at its core and speaks to something deep inside the human soul. It lends itself to discovery and exploration, to trying new things. I think an appreciation for free verse helps us understand when to break free from form and try new things.
Prose writers can benefit both from understanding the rigidity of some form and structure while also gaining a lot from the freedom that comes with an appreciation for free verse poetry. To couple both skillsets and bring them into prose would mean the work can flex outside of the rigidity of expectations and create new, truly exciting writing.
Pacing and Tension
Poetry plays a lot with pacing and tension — and these are two aspects of importance in writing prose, specifically long-form prose like novels. While pacing works in short stories, it is perhaps less important due to the built-in length of a short story requiring a quicker pace.
Poetry paces itself through use of rhythm and meter and musicality. Further, playing with punctuation marks and line breaks and help to give a sense of pace. Many short lines, for example, result in a punchy, quick pace whereas a poem with many long-winded lines results in a slower, drawn-out pace.
Poetry has to pace itself based on length. As we have noted, some forms of poetry have rigid structures and require a specific care for pace to ensure the entire narrative of the poem gets from start to finish within the confines. This is no different than the idea of a novel or essay. We are writing to get from some entry point to a finish line.
Understanding the way previous elements — such as rhythm and word economy — can play into pacing, novelists and prose writers can learn to weave a better pace through the stories. This results in a well-paced chapter and overall narrative. Poetry, therefore, can help writers understand the idea of pacing at both a macro and micro level.
Then, tension comes in with the same aspects. Lines breaks, stanzas, and pacing can be used to great effect to create a sense of tension. Further, repetition can also create a sense of tension. These are important elements in a poem.
Particularly, use of enjambment (the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza) when coupled into line breaks and the use of marks such as an em dash for an interrupted thought can create a sense of tension.
Utilizing similar techniques in writing prose can help. Understanding the way in which line breaks, paragraphs, pacing, repetition, and punctuation marks can play with reading speed and the tension exuded from the writing can mean stronger prose — but it may also be genre dependent in terms of the effectiveness, i.e. not every genre relies on tension as much as some others. So, your mileage may
Symbolism
Poetry is perhaps known also for its extensive use of symbolism. Some common examples of symbolism include
- red roses to represent love or passion
- butterflies to represent transformation or rebirth
- olive branch as a symbol of peace or reconciliation
Some examples of other symbols I have used in poems:
- pomegranates to represent unrequited love and carelessness
- the ocean to represent loneliness and sorrow
The idea of using symbolic language is almost completely embedded within the function of poetry as an art form. Most of what I think makes poetry great comes from the layered symbolism which can mean different things to different readers.
Symbolism is not confined within poetry though. Novelists can learn a lot from the use of symbolic language, and many of the great novels we read and learn from often have heavy symbols.
One of the most famous symbols in novels is that of the White Whale. It is a symbol for the obsession of Captain Ahab. It is the pursuit of knowledge and power and the futile struggle against the unknown. Further, the colour white represents, usually, purity and innocence.
Colours, too, have long been used as symbols for emotion. We see a deep red as being romantic, fiery, and passionate. A brighter red perhaps anger. Purple is regal. Yellow is happiness or caution. Green is calm or envious. Blue is often the colour of sadness. White is purity. Black is corruption.
Novelists who go into stories with symbolism at the front of their mind are sure to create a more engaging story which offers more to think about than simply the narrative alone.
Poetry as Creativity Exercises
Metaphor
Piggybacking off of symbolism, metaphors are a key element in poetry. Poets often think in metaphors to get their narratives across. It is simply not enough to say, “I loved you too much,” as it is to say something like, “Our love was like a river dammed at both ends,” or something.
Poetry encourages thinking in metaphor, which can help novelists create more complex and creative writing. Whether these come through in dialogue, such as a character speaking in metaphors, or through narrative, the concepts of metaphor strengthen the ideas behind the writing.
And writers can use their creativity here too. Metaphors can be almost anything. Instead of, “She is kind, generous, and lovely,” a metaphor could be, “She is an angel.” It offers a way for writers to toss aside boring and overused words in place of creative ways of getting the same idea across — but do be aware of overusing clichéd metaphors.
Imagination
Poetry helps writers’ imaginations too. By reading and writing poetry, we are forcing ourselves to stretch the creative imagination to new levels. Because of the aspects of poetry which we have talked about, we see how poetry’s use of symbolism, metaphor, and specific word choices can lend to new imagined things.
The creativity exhibited through the symbols, metaphors, and language of poetry can help novelists think outside of the conventional boundaries of creativity. This can lead to more imaginative storytelling and new ideas altogether.
I like to think of poetry as pure creation sometimes. Poetry tends to be so short it that it must find new ways of getting the narrative, theme, and motifs across, and this desire for brevity offers a way for creativity to be forced into the confines, which can then be expanded to writing prose.
Aesthetics
Poets often also have a heightened sense of beauty when it comes to writing. Naturally, I think a focus on imagery and symbolism would lead to a subconscious desire to showcase some inherent aesthetics.
A novelist can learn a lot about aesthetic from different forms of poetry and from the different ways in which poets have drawn on language to form metaphor, rhythm, and paint narratives and settings within poems. For instance, a pastoral is a poem which portrays an idealized version of country life. In one of my collections, I paint a dark, moody aesthetic filled with darker tones and invoke words like “viscera.”
Aesthetic, to me, plays a role in setting the tone and atmosphere as well. Utilizing the elements we have see before — diction and metaphor, perhaps — we can create a tantalizing aesthetic in prose. These elements all blend together to create detailed settings, better characters, and well-structured narratives.
Aesthetic becomes a sort of “icing on the cake” for prose wherein things like diction, syntax, and symbolism form the base of the cake. But I think it is important to mention that the icing still adds a lot of flavour and binds the other elements together in a cohesive manner. Aesthetics in this sense go beyond just beauty and what beauty means, and I think novelists would be better off for a deeper appreciation and consideration for the aesthetics within their own prose.
Edit Gooder and Be Like Way More Precise
Revising
Editing in poetry is a lot different than it is in novels. With novels, the general story and plot are put under much more scrutiny than the words used, the syntax, and rhythm, and so on. With revising poetry, every line — and every word, every syllable even — is scrutinized at length.
The intensive scrutiny that poems often face can help teach novelists to reinforce their editing with more concern for the elements which make poetry so powerful: diction, syntax, rhythm, and so on.
In my own writing, I will often use the simplest word I have when drafting for the sake of brevity and getting the idea onto the paper. But during editing? I will find better words. It is not just “blood” red. It is scarlet or crimson. It is not “intensely mad” it is “vehement rage.” These are, of course, just examples.
The revisions become more fine-toothed, sure, but it offers a deeper understanding of the words and how they interplay with the overall paragraph, chapter, and story.
Appreciating poetry would, therefore, help novelists develop a more critical lens with which they can edit their own works. I think a deeper care for the foundational elements can be brushed over sometimes in favour of the overarching aspects of the novel. It doesn’t have to be one or the other, and it should be both micro from poetry and macro from long-form prose.
Brevity and Precision
Poetry demands brevity and precision with its words. Concise expression is paramount in many forms of poetry due to the traditional length limitations or other aesthetic reasons. Poets, therefore, are deliberate with their words. This means novelists can learn a thing or two.
An appreciation for poetry could help a novelist understand when to remove filler and fluff, replacing it with concise and deliberate writing. The removal of the unnecessary helps to tighten the narrative.
I know, personally, I would rather read 60,000 words of tight narrative than 120,000 words where half is filler. (Though, I do think that sometimes filler does have its uses and charms.)
Self-Reflection
Poetry also has an added layer to it that escapes the pages we write upon. The emotional weight of poetry can help to guide us with self-reflection and becoming more in tune with our own emotional state and how it may relate to narratives we craft and the lines we write.
Further, poetry forces a deeper meaning upon the words and phrases that are used within, and this can help novelists think more carefully about the impact of each line of their own prose too.
And this is not to say novelists don’t already self-reflect, but more as pointing out that poetry offers a varied and perhaps more nuanced lens to reflect through. Novelists have to consider the big picture before they consider intricate details of their story. The story must be sound before the word choice, so to speak.
But an appreciation for writing and reading poetry can meld these two aspects of self-reflection upon their work together into one cohesive view which allows for both seeing the reflection from the lines and word choices to the bigger picture of the overall narrative.
Conclusion
To conclude, while poetry and prose are distinct forms of writing, they share much more than you would think at a first look. Poetry focuses heavily into word economy, syntax, diction, and musicality as well as deep exploration of symbolism, themes, and metaphors to paint their emotional landscapes. And these things are immensely helpful for any writer to employ in their writings.
Further, embracing precision, creativity, rhythm, and brevity often found in poetry, prose writers can enhance their storytelling and tighten narratives.
Whether through the construction of a perfect single line or the sweeping narrative of a novel, both poetry and prose are ultimately trying to express the human condition or tell some narrative or invoke some emotional reaction in the reader.
This is a lot to say that I believe an appreciation for poetry serves as a path to blend both art forms at once to become the best at both that we can be. Poetry leads us to creative freedom, emotional exploration, and a heightened care for aesthetic beauty in writing.
In the end, the practice of blending the strengths of both forms can lead to more powerful, resonant, and imaginative works of writing, enriching the writer and the reader alike.
So, please, writers, read more poetry, and write more poetry, and let poetry flow through you. The study of the ways in which poetry functions can help you become an even better prose writer. I promise you.
Yours truly,
D.
P.S. You can find my socials here and donate to my Ko-fi here.
