From Poetry to Prose: Invaluable Lessons from Verse

Part 1

What were your first ventures into the world of writing? Did you start out with little short stories? One-act plays with parts portrayed by siblings or friends? Or were your first efforts poetic? If so, were your own writings ever inspired by a poem you had read? 

Recently, I was reviewing some of my early attempts at poetry and was struck by one's similarity to a Carl Sandburg classic that I studied in high school.

Fog
by Carl Sandburg

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Obviously, the comparison of the fog to the silent stealth of the cat intrigued me to the extent that I still remember it. Below are a few lines from my poem, which was written in 1957, a year or two after I studied Sandburg's work. Because it is rather long, I will quote only the first few lines here.

Night

Night creeps over meadow and hill,

Stealthy like a cat, 

Minding no one's business but her own,

Yet seeing all…

This similarity may seem like a small thing, but the lesson I learned from Sandburg's short poem has affected my novel writing up through today. Similes (introduced with like or as – "Night") and metaphors (calling one thing something else – "Fog") add color and texture to our writing. Similarities to something familiar also help to keep the reader engaged.

By creating a word picture in the reader's mind, we pull that reader into the scene. Example: It is said that eyes are windows to the soul. His windows are empty. The metaphor here calls the character's eyes empty windows, giving the reader deeper insight into the kind of person he is. 

Another fabulous tool we can acquire from the annals of poetry is alliteration, which refers to words that begin with the same sound. Edgar Allan Poe was a master of this technique, as you will note in this short quote from the opening lines of "The Raven":

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

Did you feel the fluidity of the read? Do you like it? I have been told that some writers don't care for alliteration. If this is true, I am curious about why. It's such a huge tool, one that can, when used subtly, turn an ordinary paragraph into a memorable melody of words.

Words are the music of the writer. Our skillful use of them provides varied tones, cadences, and tempos in our stories. How does this relate to alliteration? Many of us have heard of Songs Without Words, a collection of 36 compositions by German composer Felix Mendelssohn. Alliteration is an opposite but equally effective technique: words without music. 

How does this work? The words become songs because they are melodic, flowing, mood-altering, picturesque. They have a rhythm, a distinctive beat that infuses life and dimension into a paragraph or scene.

Consider the subtle differences in the following two paragraphs depicting the same passage. Which one pulls you more deeply into the scene?

SCENE 1: Could he be wrong? He desperately hoped so, but his gut told him his roommate was responsible for Katherine's house fire. He looked back at the floor. On one side of the bed, it wasn't strewn with clothes. Kneeling down, he lifted up the edge of the spread and pulled out two duffel bags.

SCENE 2: Could he be wrong? He wanted to be wrong, wanted to walk away without finding what he feared most. His gut wouldn’t let him go. Kneeling to the floor on the side of the bed that wasn't cluttered with clothes, he lifted the edge of the spread, looked underneath, and pulled out two duffel bags. Their contents dashed his hope that his roommate hadn’t torched Katherine’s house.

Although some of the wording is different, both paragraphs depict the same scene. Do you think the use of alliteration provides punch, as well as additional insight into the mentality of the POV character?

Over the next several weeks, I plan to further explore the lessons taught by poetry that can lift our prose to the next level. I hope you will share your thoughts about this frequently untapped resource that we often overlook.

Editor Linda Lane has returned to her first love, writing, after retiring from editing. Her character-driven novels, although sometimes a bit literary in nature, remind the reader of genre fiction because of their quick pace. They also contain some elements of romance, mystery, and thrillers. You can contact her through her website: LSLaneBooks.com