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Writing a love poem for the one you love can seem like an impossible task when you've memories of struggling with English in school. But it needn't be.
Remember those boring sessions of learning words such as stanzas, prose, verse, and rhyme? Whilst that's great to know when you're studying literature, it might hold you back when you're starting out on your very own love poem.
Only two things are important here.
1. To think from the heart
2. To write from the heart
So how to start?
1. First of all get yourself some paper and a pen and block off a bit of time when you won't be undisturbed. If you want to play some music fine, but let it be inspiring stuff, rather than loud and aggressive. I've often found that setting aside a particular block of time, (say ?
hour) helps.
2. Sit down quietly, close your eyes and remember all the good things about your loved one. Try to focus on three main areas for the moment (you can choose others if you like). Think about a) How you felt when you first saw them.
What were they wearing, what was the occasion, who said what, what happened, where did you go? b) How you felt when you knew you really loved them. When was the moment? How did you know? How did you feel and how did you let them know? c) How you feel now that you're with them. How do you look forward to the future together? What plans do you have? How does life compare now to earlier times without your partner? What dreams do you share?
4. Now start to write your thought down onto paper. This is called prose. Prose is more every day speech than poetry, and it just describes your thoughts and the facts (for a fuller description see www.wikipedia.com). You could think of prose as just an outpouring of your feelings onto paper. Don't hold back. Just go for it. It can all be edited later. For now, just spill it out and get it down.
5. When you feel that you've written enough (you decide how much that is), it's time to review it. A review is your own chance to really look back at what you've put down on paper.
Are there parts you don't like or areas you want to write more about? Perhaps there are sections, words or sentences that you really don't want in there? Be honest with
yourself. No-one's looking at it at this stage, and
you're not trying to rival Shakespeare. It's more important that these are your honest feelings, even if you might ?flounce them up', poetically, later on.
6. Most ?love poem' advice now recommends that you replace common nouns with proper nouns. It's not too complicated.
It means Instead of saying ?flower' - which is pretty general, be more specific and choose a type of flower - say ?Rose' for example. Make sure your choice of flower begins with a Capital Letter.
7. Next step is to replace ?weak' verbs with strong ones.
Don't fret too much about this. Instinct should tell you if it sounds right. For a really detailed explanation of our two English types of nouns (no ? I didn't know thateither) take a look at the www.bbb.co.uk website.
8. And finally, the general advice is to bring all these three memories together with a metaphor. Remember them?
When you use as? like. It's a comparison. Again Google comes up with a good explanation. This page also has come good poetry metaphors to get your started.
9. The last stage is to re-read your prose ? either out loud, or in your head, making note of all those conscious thoughts you have about it. You can make notes on the paper at this stage or just ?feel' what it says to you.
This process breaks up the prose into poetry.
10. You may want to give your poem a title. You can either pick something from what you've written or write something general such as ?What you mean to me'.
11. Once you've done that, decide if it is to go into a blank card, be handwritten, or computer generated ? there are loads of fine scripts out there that you can print off.
With a bit of placement planning, you can fold and insert your print-off into your card).
Remember that it's love poem. The one you give it to will be more touched by the genuine effort and feeling involved than the ?correct English'. For more inspiration take a look at some of the classic love poems out there.
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Geraldine Jozefiak has written extensively about choosing, writing and sending a Love Card. Greeting Card Guide gives you the latest news, trends and products to make your greeting card selection as quick, fun and painless as possible.
http://greetingcardguide.com
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