Write Serious Gothic Poetry
Do you live in a world of darkness? Always finding yourself standing in the middle of a crowded room screaming, but no one hears you? Does your pain seem endless? Gothic poetry will work for you...
Steps
- Start with a topic. This expansive genre encompasses a huge range of topics. A Gothic poem can be about anything. It's just a dark twist. Stereotypically, Gothic poetry is about pain, death and tragic love. This isn't always true. So don't let yourself be fooled by stereotypes.
- Think of a title. The title is one of the most important parts of Gothic poetry. It helps the reader gather the emotion of the poem before they read it, and to understand the poem while reading it. A good title will catch the person's eye. Just make sure you can keep their attention afterward. It's a good idea to keep the title short, either words or syllables.
- With the hard part out of the way, outline the poem. Anything goes in this step, as you'll soon revise it. Keep it consistent with the title. Then add some supporting verses after you know what your outline might look like. A short example: "my twisted soul can no longer fly/darkness rips at my blinding eyes"
- Capitalization isn't a big part of Gothic poetry. Some poems actually come across stronger when words aren't capitalized except for the names of God, people, and places.
- Punctuation is important. Another stereotype is that punctuation is absent from Gothic poetry. But that's not true. Any poem, no matter the genre, would do well with punctuation.
- Most people like rhyme. If you wish to rhyme then great! Don't TRY to make your poem rhyme though. The rhyming should always come by itself. Trying to rhyme is forcing it to rhyme, and the poem won't flow and it'll be... well not a good poem. If you want it to rhyme but have to force rhymes, then do so, but revise revise revise!
- Modern Gothic poetry tends to be free verse. Do what you wish with the design of the poem. But make sure it's comfortable to you and you can work with it. Remember: free verse has little or no rhyme!
- Shape & Length. It doesn't matter how long a poem is, but it does matter how you shape it. A most preferred style is column. You can also make it the left or right side of your page.
Tips
- The Dictionary and Thesaurus are your best friends.
- Blood and Black aren't strong words because of their overuse in today's society; if you want something stronger, then refer to the thesaurus. Adding darkly, disturbed, literate, and twisted synonyms such as these for black: ebon, ebony, onyx, sable, dark, or pitch-dark. For blood you could use words such as vitae and gore; for red crimson, russet, carmine, bloodshot, cherry,blush, brick, cardinal, and scarlet.
- Never throw out any of your poems. They're your keepsake. Your soul. Your future.
- Massacre-- blood bath, bloodshed, blood letting, butchery, carnage, pogrom (always a jerker), or slaughter.
- Numbers are stronger if written out.
- Try not to let your parents find any of your poems.
- Use intricate and dark words like: morbid, melancholy, phantasmagoric, macabre, torment, eternal, decrepit, futile, deliberate, and dilapidated. Try flipping through a dictionary and looking at random words, you'll most likely find some you like.If you don't know some of the words above,look them up. They are used a lot as descriptions of society in gothic literature
- Similar to this is bloody-minded: murderous, bloodthirsty, bloody, cutthroat, homicidal, sanguinary, sanguineous, and slaughterous.
- Reference Persephone (who was kidnapped by Hades and forced to live the winter of every year in the underworld), Orpheus (a poet who tried to rescue his wife from Hades), Eurydice (the wife of Orpheus), Tantalus (doomed to forever sit in pool of water with grapes hanging overhead but not be able to touch them), the Cimmerii (people who lived in eternal darkness), or other ancient Greek/Roman tragic stories are good for Epic Poetry.
- If you choose to add something from a foreign language, especially Latin, make sure you know what it means and that you'll remember it.
- Gothic poetry is not always dark, no matter what they say!
- Other synonyms, if you are writing something about death, you may use:
- Research a few Gothic poems to get an idea on what to write or anything else that will influence your creativity.
- Try using hatred, anger, sadness, and disappointment as inspiration to your poems. Speak how you feel. Write out how you feel and turn it into a poem.
Warnings
- Also, if they despise the "darkness" of your poetry, protect it! Parents are notorious for throwing away "trash." Chances are, that's what they think of your poetry. Suggestion: At school, carry it with you in your book bag. All other times, keep it somewhere inconspicuous.
- If it's thin enough, it may fit in a pocket or tucked into your sock under your pants or somewhere people won't usually look.
- And never let the people you hate the most know how you feel they will just use it as an excuse to be mean
- Do not give in to stereotypes!
- Don't take criticism personally unless it goes against your beliefs.
- You may come across as an "emo" and not gothic.
- If you are planning to have your poem somehow seen by the public, always make sure it is appropriate for the occasion!
- If your parents aren't comfortable with the Gothic subculture or any of it's counterparts, make it scarce. Do not flash it in their presence. It isn't cowardly, it's self-preservation.
- Unless you want to, don't show your poetry to anybody in school. You might get into trouble and/or rejected.
- Try hiding them in places like under your mattress or other places nobody would ever think to look. Like in a phone book in your room.
Related Articles
- Write a Love Poem
- Publish a Poem
- Become Inspired to Write Poetry
- Start a Trench Coat Club
- Be a Poet
- Write a Poem
- Explicate a Poem
- Write Dark Poems
- Dress Goth
- Be Dark
- Be Goth at Church
