Monday 22 February 2016

What makes a good poem?

I have been doing some teaching on poetry recently. It is not my thing really so I had to do a lot of research, during which I came across a few quotes on  of what makes a good poem. Here are one or two:
 
A good poem is a slip-of-a-thing that celebrates language, that takes you on a short journey and touches your heart, turns on your imagination, or tickles your funny- bone somewhere along the way.
Nikki Grimes.

A good poem makes you feel like you’ve been there before, or want to go. A good poem takes you to the city, to the sea, to the heart of any and all matters; you see it, taste it, belong to it. A good poem is a menagerie of craft; a spinning of sound, word choice, alliteration, rhythm and often rhyme. A good poem is the arrangement of enchantment, or as J. Patrick Lewis says, a blind date with enchantment.
Rebecca Kai Dotlich

What makes a good poem? Brevity, terseness, spareness, viewing something new for the very first time, creating an image like no one has ever been blown away by before in their entire life.
Lee Bennett Hopkins

Love and care for elemental details, for chosen words and their simple arrangement on the page... and a way of ending that leaves a new resonance or a lit spark in the reader or listener's mind—that’s part of it.
Naomi Shihab Nye

A good poem surprises your senses, shakes you awake, stirs your emotions, and startles your imagination. Each poem is an act of discovery. Poetry helps us widen our vision and our hearts.
Joan Bransfield Graham

John Dean

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