Editing a Poem

 

Writing a poem needs skill, creativity and patience, and so does editing it. Once you have written your first draft, it is time you get organised and innovative and begin editing your poem. A poem needs careful editing. Know more about writing a poem in my previous blog post. Here are some of the ideas I use in my poetry editing process.

1. Put your poem aside for a few days. Writing a poem really is hard work. Once you've penned down all the words on a piece of paper, the first thing to do is to keep it aside and take a break from the poem-writing process for a few days. Come back to your poem with fresh and creative eyes. This will help you think clearly and concentrate more.
2. Review what you have written. Read your poem completely and write down anything you feel is off. Ask yourself some questions that will allow you to take a look at the poem and its theme more clearly. Is the theme seen through the words? Is your writing clear? What would be some of the questions that may come to the readers’ minds? Will this type of poem evoke the emotion you’re trying to express? Write down the answers to these questions which will make the editing process easy.
3. Read the poem orally. This will help you check the poem’s rhythm and flow. Read your changes out loud and notice how it sounds.
4. Look at every line of the poem individually. Every line sounds different on its own. Does every line go along with the flow of the line before and after it? If not, rewrite it with a different view and choice of words and phrases. Are the literary devices you used working? If not, see to it. Know more about the most common literary devices in my previous blog post.
5. Ask feedback. A poem has different perspectives from different readers. Give your poem to someone who you know and think will give you good feedback and suggestions for it. Ask some questions like “Did the theme come across?”, “What is your perspective?” etc. and jot the answers down. Edit the places where suggestions were given.
6. Do a final look-through. Surprisingly, even the final look-through may have a lot of corrections to make. Look at them carefully and make changes if needed.

Boom! You have finally edited your poem with all your hard work. Share your poem with people you know and also try to publish them in various magazines and newspapers. This will increase your confidence in writing more poems.
Writing and editing any piece of writing is challenging, especially in poetry. Practice your poetry skills by trying different types of poems, each having a different theme.

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