![]() ![]() A cliché becomes cliché when it is too universal, describing similar experiences without any emotion or detail. In your own love poems, rely on depth and specificity. While she cannot tell the reader what loss means to them, there is a sense of hope here, a sense that loss does not have to be disaster, no matter the pain. ![]() She suggests that, though loss seems to be disaster, it is anything but. This is, essentially, the cliché “It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” Yet, it isn’t that cliché at all: the poet has imbued this stanza with specificity and emotional depth. Though it may look like ( Write it!) like disaster. The art of losing’s not too hard to master Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture Take the below excerpt, from the poem “ One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop: But in our own love poems, what we can do is subvert clichés or rewrite them to our advantage. How do we avoid them? Sometimes we can’t. These sayings are trivial, overused, and, quite frankly, they are often untrue. Roses are red, violets are blue absence makes the heart grow fonder love is blind love at first sight love comes when you least expect it, etc. A cliché is an already-written phrase that has been overused in literature and conversation, to the point that nearly everyone recognizes the phrase instantly.Īs you would expect, there are countless clichés about love. Connect personal experiences to universal emotions through poetic forms and devices.Ī popular concern for writers working on love poems is the unintentional use of clichés.Focus on specific events, details, and experiences.To summarize, the best love poems do the following when talking about love: Rather than trying to fit every dimension of love into a single piece, these beautiful love poems dwell on the specific, utilizing particular details, events, and images to connect to broader romantic experiences. Additionally, each poem focuses on a singular aspect of love. Kim Addonizio’s poem, by contrast, looks at the experience of falling in love with someone and feeling your entire brain and heart activated by them.īoth poems make use of metaphor and imagery to expand upon the poet’s experience of love. Kaveh Akbar’s poem acknowledges the sense of monstrosity inherent to being loved: the desire to hide the worst parts of yourself from your lover, but also to have those parts undressed by them. These two excerpts come from poems that approach love from different directions. I feel kind of, I don’t know, like my inner space heaterĪnd TV and washing machine are all going at once. Take these two excerpts from love poems, which describe the experience in vastly different ways: How do we write about it?īecause love is highly specific to the poet writing about it, the best love poems often make use of literary devices, especially metaphor and imagery, to convey the poet’s unique experiences. Love can transform, destroy, renew, and strip down. ![]() Our interpretations of love vary across languages, cultures, religions, time periods, and individuals. It is a feeling, an experience, and a decision you constantly make. Love is complicated, ineffable, and constantly changing. How do you write about love?Īt the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet. Along the way, we’ll discuss how to capture this convoluted emotion in language, and provide tips on how to write a love poem of your own.īefore we examine romantic love poems, let’s address the hardest part first. Whether you’re looking for inspiration, preparing for Valentine’s day, or trying to write love poems of your own, the examples included in this article will help you express the fantastic complexity of love. As a result, a corpus of beautiful love poems has emerged throughout our many millennia of writing and sharing poetry. Because love is a highly personal and variable experience, no two love poets will approach the topic in quite the same way. Love poems have tried to capture the essence of love since the dawn of poetry itself. ![]()
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