Characteristics of a romantic poem
Before writing your own love poems, you should know what exactly love poetry is characterized by. The keys that we will give you below are essential to learn how to write poetry, so take note and pay attention to the following guidelines:
Main themes: as you can imagine, love poems are full of works that deal with romantic love, based on the idea of suffering as an inseparable component of the author’s process of falling in love. This initial theme leads us to others, also very common in love poems, such as tragic destiny or death as liberation. (Example: … banishment and death for me are where you are not… – Luis Cernuda).
Essential ingredients: love poetry is full of concepts such as the Self, passion, loneliness, melancholy and the exaltation of beauty. In your poems, all these elements do not have to appear, but at least two of them do.
Bombastic and symbolic language: in love poems it is common to see emotional aspects highlighted above the rational ones. The stanzas of love poems are full of words and expressions full of meaning so that the reader feels closer to the passion or despair or sadness that the author feels. It is also common to use exclamations, questions, etc.
Raw vision of reality: reality is very harsh for the romantic poet, since it comes into conflict with his feelings and desires, so it is normal to see the author’s rebellion against the rules established by society. (Example: …because Love is a lie of poets, a dream of madmen, an idol of vain: look at what a black God we adore – Gaspar Gil Polo).
Polymetric and polystrophic poems: if you want to learn how to write a love poem, you should keep in mind that these usually mix verses and stanzas of different sizes, which gives the writer more freedom.
How to write a love poem – Characteristics of a romantic poem
Explore your feelings
Both short and long love poems are full of sincerity, in fact, we could say that it is one of the most basic characteristics of this type of poetry. So, to begin with, you have to be aware of your sentimental context: do you feel in love, rejected, skeptical, confused? Dig inside yourself to find all those emotions and desires that you want to capture on paper.
In short, find out exactly what you want to explain honestly.
Turn your feelings into words
Before moving on to rhyming phrases and talking about the best words to make poems, we advise you to get rid of any prejudice and try to materialize what you feel freely.
For this, we advise you to brainstorm on paper and write the phrases or rhymes that come to mind without worrying about the more technical aspects.
Read the best
Just as you can’t make movies without learning from the best filmmakers, you can’t write poetry without learning from the best poets. Reading good poetry will not only help you learn metaphors and analogies that will inspire your own writing, but you will also see how the greatest poets in history have expressed their feelings and structured their poems.
Read poetry in different styles and forms to see which one you feel closest to. Here are some of our favorite examples: