30 day poetry challenge: Final thoughts

Everything you need to know

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Poetryforyou

6 min readApr 28, 2021

First of all, I apologise for posting this a lot later than I said I would.

Right, now that’s over with….

General thoughts

For thirty days, I wrote a poem a day. There were a couple of interesting effects:

It was a lot easier to find something to write about. Before The Challenge, I usually wrote about the same things over and over again (mostly nature), but that would be a bit boring, so I had to come up with new subjects
My poems became a lot “looser” and a bit more natural. This was a rather unexpected one. Before the challenge, all my poems followed a rhyming scheme and had a strict number of syllables per line, which made them a little bit clunky and unnatural: I put the rhyming and rhythm before what I wanted to say. Afterwards, I was a lot more relaxed about it and focused more on the meaning and the metaphors, only adding the rhyming and rhythm to add some flavour.
I wrote poems a lot faster than before. This comes hand-in-hand with the first one. Before the challenge, if I wanted to write a poem I would write perhaps four lines in about half an hour, take a break for between 2 and 24h, come back, and repeat as needed. During the challenge, seeing as I was in school 40-odd hours a week, this break-neck schedule wasn’t really an option. I would write 14 lines in about 15–30min, in front of Grey’s Anatomy, then post it the next day.

I am definitely a better poet than I was before the Challenge, no question about it. Let’s compare my first poem and my last poem, for instance. The first one is still OK, but, to me, there’s no question which one’s better. The last one, while it doesn’t strictly respect the rules of the sonnet (strict ABBACDDCEEFGFG rhyming, same number of syllables per line…), tries to communicate why we, as humans continue to strive to survive. The first poem, while humorous, doesn’t really communicate anything.

Did I succeed?

This is a difficult question. While I did write 30 poems in 30 days (actually, I wrote 31 or 32, but I lost them before I could type them up), I didn’t write one every single day. I forgot 3 or 4 times, and most of the poems I wrote didn’t follow the strict sonnet form. That being said, any 14-line poem is technically a sonnet, and all of my poems had 14 lines, so I can get away with it. I also didn’t try many methods. So the answer is…

I don’t know.

It really depends on who you asked. The main goal was writing a poem a day, which I didn’t really do, but I made up for it by writing an extra poem the next day. All of my poems were, technically, sonnets, so one could argue that I did everything I was supposed to. Then again, you could also argue that I failed completely. It’s up to you.

Conclusion

To conclude, while I didn’t do everything I planned to do, this challenge was very helpful and I urge you to try it. Or at least some version of it. Perhaps with ballads, or even flash fiction.

Oh, and here’s the cheat sheet I promised…

Sonnets

Rules

Must have 14 lines**
Strict rhyming scheme*, often ABBACDDCEEFGFG in English and ABBAABBACCDEDE in more rhyme-rich languages like French or Italian
Must be isometric, meaning it has the same number of syllables per line.*
Often have a “Volta”* in the last 3 or 6 lines (basically, for the first 8 lines you think you know what the poem’s trying to convey, then at the end you realise it was something completely different)
Typically about love, though some are about other subjects
Often have only one metaphor that continues throughout (ex: comparing mistress to nature)

**Required to be considered a sonnet.

*Required to be considered a regular sonnet.

Tips

If you want your poem to contain anything fancy, like a rhyming scheme or the iambic pentameter or a metaphor, determine what you want them to be before you start writing, but don’t be afraid to change them afterwards.
Avoid changing the meaning of the poem just to make it fit a rhyming or rhythmic scheme. Can make it seem forced.
Read a lot of poems (not necessarily sonnets) before writing a (regular) sonnet. Expanding your vocabulary is probably a good idea too.
Write at least a few good poems before trying to write a regular sonnet. It’s easy enough to write an OK one, but extremely tricky to write a good or great one.
GET TO THE POINT. Sonnets are short. You don’t have the time to make something very elaborate with lots of flowery embellishments.

EDIT : Here are my posts:

30 day poetry challenge!. A couple of days ago, I was given an… | by Everything you need to know | Poetryforyou | Medium

30 day poetry challenge: day 1. A couple of days ago, I was given an… | by Everything you need to know | Mar, 2021 | Medium

30 day poetry challenge: day 2. The storm | by Everything you need to know | Mar, 2021 | Medium

30 day poetry challenge, day 3 — Everything you need to know — Medium

30 day poetry challenge, day 4. Imagine | by Everything you need to know | Mar, 2021 | Medium

30 day poetry challenge: day 5. I am me | by Everything you need to know | Mar, 2021 | Medium

30 day poetry challenge: day 6. Sonnet no. 5 | by Everything you need to know | Mar, 2021 | Medium

30 day poetry challenge: day 7. Ruby Bridges | by Everything you need to know | Mar, 2021 | Medium

30 day poetry challenge: day 8. Lockdown | by Everything you need to know | Mar, 2021 | Medium

30 day poetry challenge, day 9 — Everything you need to know — Medium

30 day poetry challenge, day 10 — Everything you need to know — Medium