CHALLENGES IN WRITING ENGLISH POETRY FOR EFL

STUDENTS

ABSTRACT- English poetry has a great complexity. It employs several elements:

theme, imagery, tone, sound, and rhythm as the key elements; not to mention figurative
languages, and connotation. This paper highlights the challenges EFL students may face
in writing English poetry, and offer some practical ways in dealing with them.
From the classroom practise, the writer has detected that rhyme and rhythm are
the most difficult elements for students to apply in their poems. Therefore, these two
aspects are the most challenging. By encouraging to use thesaurus, ultimately students
can make rhyming poems. In terms of rhythm, students are not able yet to apply a fixed
metrical pattern in their poems. The patterns vary to each line of their poems.

INTRODUCTION

It is m ost likely that everyone is aw are that p oetry is the m ost

difficult to understand among other literary works. Poetry is a special
form of literatu re. It looks d ifferent from other form s of w riting, and
it sou nd s d ifferent. Many stu d ents say that they hate poetry,
p robably becau se it takes m ore effort to u nd erstand p oetry than
prose or play.
Meanw hile, it is qu ite strange w hen p eop le search for an
ap p rop riate w ay to exp ress their feelings, su ch as in tim es of traged y,
they natu rally tu rn to the p oem as a m eans of exp ression. We can
check a d aily new sp ap er to read exam p les. For a cond olence, for
example, p eop le w ish to p u t into w ord s their feelings of loss and
rem em brance. We all have favou rite songs, and w hat is a song bu t a
p oem set to m u sic? We sp end tim e in greeting card stores searching
for the p erfect card to reflect ou r w ishes for a hap p y birthd ay, an
anniversary; most of these wishes are written in verse form.

Som etim es a p oetic slogan sticks in our head for the entire d ay.
All of these instances p rove that p oetry is everyw here in ou r
everyd ay lives. We seem to have a need for form s of exp ression that
include rhyme and rhythm.
Poetry can tell a story, describe an object or situation, narrate an
event, or sim p ly exp ress feelings. Whatever the su bstance of the
rem arks and the u ltim ate m essage, p oetry is characterized by
linguistic elements that go beyond standard sentence structure.
Initially, p oetry m ight be d efined as a kind of langu age that
says m ore and says it m ore intensely than d oes ord inary langu age.
William Word sw orth d efined p oetry as "the sp ontaneou s overflow of
p ow erfu l feelings, recollected in tranquillity" (cited in Kenned y and
Gioia, 1995). Poetry is the m ost cond ensed and concentrated form of
literature, saying most in the fewest number of words.
Poetry is language whose individual lines have a higher voltage
than m ost langu age has. It is langu age that grow s frequ ently
incand escent, giving off both light and heat. Therefore, it can be
recognized only by the response made to it by a good reader.
The p roblem , how ever, is that not all of u s are good read ers.
Poor read ers w ill see p oetry as nonsensical. H ow can p oetry be
d escribed as m oving and exciting w hen they find it d u ll and boring.
To their eyes, p oetry is no m ore than a fancy w ay of w riting
something that cannot be said more simply.
Poetry is a kind of m u ltid im ensional langu age. Ord inary
langu age that w e u se to com m u nicate inform ation is one
d im ensional, since it is d irected only at the listener’s u nd erstand ing.
Its one d im ension is intellectu al. Poetry, the langu age u sed for
com m u nicating exp erience, has at least fou r d im ensions. If it is to
com m u nicate exp erience, it m u st be d irected not only at the listener’s
intelligence but also at his senses, emotions, and imaginations.

To p u t it conclu sively, d ealing w ith p oetry is d ealing w ith

language at a higher level than usual. For students and teachers alike,
read ing, teaching and ap p reciating p oetry is a d irect m eans of the
m astery of the langu age involved . It is p lau sible to su rm ise that the
u se of langu age w here w ord s, form s, im ages, sou nd s, m eaning, and
music are so carefully intertwined.

THE KEY ELEMENTS OF POETRY

There are several devices said to be the key elements of poetry;

namely theme, imagery, tone, sound, and rhythm. Each contributes
equally to the harmony of a poem.
 a. Theme

The them e is the controlling id ea of a literary w ork. The

controlling id ea of a p oem is the id ea continu ou sly d evelop ed
throu ghou t the p oem by sets of key w ord s that id entify the p oet's
su bject and his attitu d e or feeling abou t it. It m ay also be su ggested
by the title of a p oem or by segm ent of the poem . It is rarely stated
exp licitly by the poet, bu t it can be stated by the read er and it can be
stated in d ifferent w ays. The controlling id ea is an id ea, not a m oral;
it is a m ajor id ea, not a m inor su p p orting id ea or d etail; and it
controls or dominates the poem as a whole.

The w ord them e is here u sed to nam e the p articu lar su bject
m atter of the poem in relationship to the read er's p reviou s
observation of the life abou t him / her and w ithin him / her. Theme,
then, here refers to those broad generalizations and high-order
abstractions which each person develops in dealing with the common
experiences of life.

If w e read Shakesp eare’s ‘Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer Day’

or ‘M y M istress Eyes are N othing Like the Sun’, w e obviou sly can say
that the tw o p oem s are love p oem s. Yet, his ‘N o Longer M ourn for M e
when I am Dead’ or ‘Fear N o M ore the Heat O’ the Sun’ has a d eath
theme, as indicated by the titles.

b. Imagery

To easily interact w ith p oetry, w e have to u nd erstand how the

p oet u ses im age to convey m ore than w hat is actu ally said or literally
meant. We sp eak of the p ictu res evoked in a p oem as 'im agery'.
Im agery refers to the "p ictu res" w hich w e p erceive w ith ou r m ind 's
eyes, ears, nose, tongu e, skin, and throu gh w hich w e exp erience the
"d u p licate w orld " created by p oetic langu age. Im agery suggests the
m eaning and tru th of hu m an exp eriences not in abstract term s, as in
p hilosop hy, bu t in m ore p ercep tible and tangible form s. This is a
d evice by w hich the p oet m akes his m eaning strong, clear and su re.
The p oet u ses sou nd w ord s and w ord s of color and tou ch in ad d ition
to figu res of sp eech. As w ell, concrete d etails that ap p eal to the
reader's senses are used to build up images.

Althou gh m ost of the im age-m aking w ord s in any langu age

ap p eal to sight (visu al im ages), there are also im ages of tou ch
(tactile), sou nd (au d itory), feeling of p hysical action (kinesthesia),
im ages of u sing one sense to evoke another (synaesthesia), taste
(gu statory), and sm ell (olfactory). The last tw o term s in brackets are
m ainly u sed by lovers of jargon. An im age m ay also ap p eal to the
reader's sense of motion.

An im age m ay occu r in a single w ord , a p hrase, a sentence, or

an entire short p oem . To sp eak of the im agery of the p oem —all its
images taken together—is often more useful than to speak of separate
images.

Another thing to rem em ber abou t im agery is that the im age

need s to be p articu lar and sp ecific. Instead of saying tree; w e w ou ld
better say aspen or oak or banyan. Rather than saying bird, it is better to
say toucan. When w e say toucan, w e actu ally help to set the scene
because toucans live only in jungle.

Im agery is certainly an effective w ay of recalling obviou s

exp eriences. It is also u sed by the p oet to convey em otion, to su ggest
ideas and to cause a mental reproduction of sensations.

c. Tone

Tone, in literatu re, m ay be d efined as the w riter's or sp eaker's

attitu d e tow ard the su bject, the au d ience, or tow ard herself/ him self.
In p oetry tone is im p ortant. We cannot really u nd erstand a poem
unless we accurately sense whether the attitude it manifests is playful
or solem n, m ocking or reverent, calm or excited . Bu t the correct
d eterm ination of tone is m u ch m ore d elicate m atter than it is w ith
sp oken langu age, for w e d o not have the sp eaker’s voice to gu id e u s.
We m u st learn to recognize tone by other m eans. Alm ost all the
elem ents of poetry go into ind icating its tone: connotation, im agery,
and m etap hor; irony and u nd erstatem ent; rhythm , sentence
construction, and formal pattern.

d. Sound

The sou nd p atterns of p oem s are classified into three:

alliteration, assonance, and rhyme.
English p oetry has alliteration, w hich can be d efined as a
su ccession of sim ilar sou nd s. Alliteration occu rs in the rep etition of
the sam e consonant sou nd at the beginning of su ccessive w ord s, or
inside the words.
Rep etition that occu rs at the beginning of su ccessive w ord s is
p op u larly called initial alliteration, w hile the occu rrence insid e the
w ord s is called internal alliteration or hid d en alliteration. For
exam p le: “rou nd and rou nd the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran”
is initial alliteration. H id d en alliteration can be seen in the follow ing
excerpt from Milton’s Parad ise Lost, as cited in Kenned y and Gioia
(1995) :
On sudden open fly
With impetuous recoil and jarring sound
The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate
Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook
Of Erebus

Alliteration d oes not d ep end on sp elling. Phantom alliterates

with flower, bu t not w ith pneumonia; cease alliterates w ith scissors but
not w ith chime. Might alliterates w ith main, hide with hair, fit with foe,
bold with brass, etc.
Most p oets save alliteration for sp ecial occasions. They m ay u se
to give em p hasis, as George H erbert does in his “Virtu e”, as cited in
Hurford (1996) :
Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright
The bridal of the earth and sky
Alliteration can also be a p ow erfu l aid to m em ory. The tongu e
tw isters like: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers and She sells sea
shells by the sea shore or com m on exp ressions like: green as grass, tried
and true, and from stem to stern, are relatively hard to forget.
 In ad d ition, the u se of alliteration can help to create a
connection or a contrast betw een id eas, bu t som etim es, it is u sed
m erely for d ecoration and m akes little contribu tion to the m eaning of
the whole poem.

If alliteration is to rep eat the sou nd of a consonant, assonance is

to repeat the sound of a vowel. Like alliteration, assonance may occur
either initially or internally. For exam p le: all the awful auguries, and
a mind at peace with all below, are initial assonance, w hile Ed m u nd
Sp enser’s “her goodly eyes like sapphires shining bright, and her forehead
ivory white, are internal assonance. Assonance can also help m ake
com m on p hrases u nforgettable, su ch as: eager beaver, and holy smoke.
Like alliteration, it slows the reader down and focuses attention.

Another sou nd p attern is rhym e. Althou gh m u ch English

p oetry is u nrhym ed , rhym e is one m eans to set p oetry ap art from
ord inary conversation, and bring it closer to m u sic. A rhym e occu rs
w hen tw o or m ore w ord s or p hrases contain an id entical or similar
vowel-sou nd (u su ally accented ), and the consonant-sou nd s that
follow the vow el-sou nd are id entical, as in hay and sleigh, and prairie
schooner and piano tuner. From these exam p les it can be seen that
rhyme depends not on spelling but on sound.

Like other p atterns of sou nd , rhym e can help a p oet to grou p

id eas, em p hasize particu lar w ord s, and w eave the p oem together. It
can start reverberations betw een w ord s and can p oint to connections
of meaning.
To have an exact rhym e, sou nd s follow ing the vow el sou nd
have to be the sam e: red and bread , w ealthily and stealthily, w alk to
her and talk to her. If final consonant sou nd s are the sam e bu t vow el
sou nd s are d ifferent, the resu lt is slant rhyme (im p erfect rhym e): su n
rhym ing w ith bone, m oon, rain, green, gone, thin. A slant rhym e can
help a p oet say som e things in a p articu lar w ay. It w orks esp ecially
w ell for d isap p ointed let-d ow ns, negations, and d enials, as in Blake’s
couplet, as cited in Kennedy and Gioia (1995) :
He who the ox to wrath has moved
Shall never be by woman loved.
 If the rhym ed w ord s or p hrases have the sam e beginning and
end ing consonant sou nd bu t d ifferent in vow el, the resu lt is
consonance; as in chitter and chatter, spoiled and spilled. End rhyme
com es at the end s of lines, internal rhym e w ithin them . Most rhym e
tend s to be end rhym e. A p oet m ay em p loy both end rhym e and
internal rhym e in the sam e p oem , as in Robert Bu rn’s satiric ballad
“The Kirk’s Alarm”:
Orthodox, orthodox, who believe in John Knox
Let me sound an alarm to your conscience
There’s a heretic blast has been blawn i’ the wast
That what is not sense must be nonsense
Masculine rhyme is a rhyme of one-syllable words (jail, bail), on
stressed final syllables (in w ord s of m ore than one syllable): d ivorce,
or horse with remorse. Feminine rhyme is a rhym e of tw o or m ore
syllables, w ith stress on syllable other than the last: turtle w ith fertile,
gladness w ith madness. Thom as H ood ’s The Bridge of Sighs contains
feminine rhymes of three syllables:
Take her up tenderly
Lift her with care
Fashioned so slenderly
Young, and so fair!
If the sp ellings look alike bu t p ronu nciations d iffer, the resu lt is eye
rhyme, as in rough with dough, idea with flea, or Venus with menus.
Strictly speaking, eye rhyme is not rhyme at all.

e. Rhythm

Rhythm or m eter is the repetition of stress w ithin a p oem . It is

the entire movement or flow of the poem as affected by rhyme, stress,
d iction and organization. The m eter of a p oem em p hasizes the
m u sical qu ality of the langu age and often relates d irectly to the
su bject m atter of the p oem . In m ost p oem s, the lines are w ritten
accord ing to p atterns of rhythm . Poetic m eter is the m easu re of a line
of p oetry. It is rhythm that can be m easu red in p oem s, as in the
following example:

I came, I saw, I conquered.

The rep eated p attern of u nstressed to stressed syllables in the above
line tend s to m ove the read er forw ard , p u shing him throu gh the line
in a rhythm ic, m ethod ic w ay. This ad d s to the m eaning of the line,
im p lying that the sp eaker cam e, saw and conqu ered qu ickly and
methodically without much thought or emotion.

To m ake ou rselves aw are of m eter, w e need only to listen to a

p oem , or sou nd its w ord s to ou rselves. If w e care to w ork ou t exactly
w hat a p oet is d oing, w e scan a line or a p oem by ind icating the
stresses in it. H ence, the art of d oing this is called scansion. Scansion
is the act of m aking a p oem to show the m etrical u nits of w hich it is
com p osed . It m eans any attem p t, by signs, to ind icate the beat of a
line of poetry and to mark off the division of feet.

The sm allest of these m etrical u nits is the 'syllable'. English

syllables are tw o kind s: accented or stressed , and u naccented or
u nstressed . An "accented syllable" requ ires m ore w ind and p u sh
behind it than an u naccented ; it also m aybe p itched slightly higher or
held for a slightly longer time.

After the syllable, the next largest m etrical u nit is the 'foot',
w hich is grou p of tw o or m ore syllables. The six com m on kind s of
feet in English m etrics have been nam es d erived from Greek, as cited
in Perrine (1969):

1. IAMBIC foot consists of u naccented syllable follow ed by an

accented . It can be heard in su ch w ord s as “because, hello,
Elaine”.
2. TROCH AIC foot consists of an accented syllable follow ed by
an u naccented . These are trochaic w ord s: answer, Tuesday,
Albert.
3. DACTYLIC foot consists of an accented syllable follow ed by
tw o u naccented syllables. You can hear the d actylic beat in
these words: beautiful, silently, Saturday.
4. AN APESTIC foot consists of tw o u naccented syllables
follow ed by an accented syllable. These w ord s are anap estic:
cavalier, tambourine, Marianne.
5. SPONDAIC foot consists of two accented syllables.
 6. PYRRHIC foot consists of two unaccented syllables.

The next largest m etrical u nit is the 'line'. A line is the regu lar
su ccession of feet, and , thou gh it is not necessarily a sentence, it
cu stom arily begins w ith a cap ital letter. The nu m ber of feet in a line
of verse d eterm ines the m easu re or m eter. Most p oem s are not bu ilt
on a fixed meter, but rather on a combination of meters and variety of
them. A line containing only one foot is called a "m onom eter"; one
w ith tw o feet, a "d im eter" line; and so on throu gh "trim eter",
"tetram eter", "p entam eter", "hexam eter", "hep tam eter", and
"octameter".

Mu st a p oem have a m eter? A large nu m ber of p oets, esp ecially

in the early years of the tw entieth centu ry, answ ered this negatively.
Their p oem s, w ritten in rhythm ical langu age bu t not in trad itional
m eters, are called 'free verse'. N onm etrical p oetry is called free
because the poet has freed himself from conforming himself to the set
of m etrical p atterns. Free verse m u st not be confu sed w ith "blank
verse', w hich is the cu stom ary label for iam bic p entam eter w ithou t
rhym e. Unlike the free verse, blank verse has a regu lar m etrical
pattern.

Meter has tw o fu nctions. First, it m akes p oem p leasu rable

becau se it is intrinsically d elightfu l. In ad d ition to m aking a p oem
enjoyable, m eter m akes it m ore m eaningfu l. It is a p art of the total
meaning -- a p art that cannot alw ays be d escribed in w ord s, bu t can
alw ays be felt and is alw ays lost w hen a p oem is p arap hrased or
when it is translated from one language to another.

Most English m eter is classified accord ing to the sam e system

as Classical m eter w ith an im p ortant d ifference. English is an
accentu al langu age, and therefore beats and offbeats (stressed and
u nstressed syllables) take the p lace of the long and short syllables of
classical system s. In m ost English verse, the m eter can be consid ered
as a sort of back beat, against w hich natu ral sp eech rhythm s which
vary expressively.
CHALLENGES IN CLASSROOM

For the last tw o years in m y p oetry class, I alw ays assign

stu d ents u nd ertaking the cou rse to be able to p rod u ce a p iece of
p oem to ap p ly theories they have learned . The p oem they p rod u ce
shou ld ap p ly one or tw o of the elem ents d escribed above. Of all the
elem ents, m ost stu d ents feel that rhym e and m etrical p attern are tw o
difficult things to apply in their poetry.

In d ealing w ith those p roblem s, I initially let them m ake their

free verse poems. They are free to arrange their own poems no matter
if they look like p rose. The next step is the rearrangem ent of those
w ord s u ntil they fit to either rhym e or certain m etrical p attern. Very
often, after the stu d ents have rearranged their w ord s, the p oem s are
still far from either rhym e or any m etrical p attern. Therefore, I
encou rage them to d o som e revision. At this step , the stu d ents can
alter to fit their poems to rhyme or a certain meter.

In term s of rhym e, I encou raged stu d ents to u se thesau ru s.

Thesau ru s is available at the com p u ter, so it easier for stu d ents to
u tilize it w hen they m ake p oetry. H ow ever, this com p u terized
thesau ru s is bou nd to certain lim itation. Frequ ently, stu d ents find
that thesau ru s on certain w ord s are not available or not fou nd in the
com p u ter. For this circu m stance, I su ggested them to u se a
conventional one.

To illu strate to w hat extent the stu d ents can go, I p resent the
following excerpts from students’ poems.

Excerpt 1:

The sky was very dark

And the rain didn’t stop yet

Rose lost in the park

And the earth would be wet

…………………………. (Naimah’s The Lost Rose)

 From this excerp t, sim p ly w e can see that the p oem rhym es
abab. The w ord “d ark” rhym es w ith “p ark”, and “yet” rhym es w ith
“w et”. There is no certain m etrical p attern ap p lied in this excerp t,
thou gh line 1 and 3, and line 2 and 4 have exactly the sam e nu m ber
of w ord s. Line 1 ap p lies iam bic trim eter, line 2 and 3 tend to be
anapestic, and line 4 is exactly anapestic dimeter.

Excerpt 2:

…………………………………………..

An angel hold my hand and wipe my tears

I‘m forced to be strong with a smile

When I look at the sky and stars

I know you love me and still mine

……………………… (Rina Adriana’s One More Day With You”)

Thou gh it is qu estionable, this stu d ent has m ad e eye rhym e.

The sp elling looks alike, bu t the sou nd is very m u ch d ifferent. The
w ord “tears” d oes not rhym e w ith “stars”, and the w ord “sm ile”
d oes not rhym e w ith “m ine”. In term s of m eter, line 1 ap p lies iam bic
p entam eter, line 2 slightly fits to anap estic trim eter, line 3 and 4 d oes
not suit to any meter.

Excerpt 3.

…………………………

I wish you’re happy there

Live with huge dare

No more fears

No more tears

(A.A Hasaniah’s When You’ve Gone Away”)

 This excerp t rhym es aabb. The w ord “there” rhym es w ith
“d are”, and the w ord “fears” rhym es w ith “tears”. This stu d ent has
su ccessfu lly m ad e rhym es, bu t it is u nlikely that she has tried to fit to
certain meter.

From the three excerp ts above, it is obviou s that students can

consid erably m ake rhym ing p oem s. H ow ever, it is likely that
stu d ents are still having p roblem s w ith m eter. The stu d ents seem to
get d ifficu lty in recognizing w hich syllables are accented and
u naccented in English w ord s althou gh they have been equ ip p ed w ith
dictionaries providing high explanatory support.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

Poetry is d eliberately a high voltage langu age. In other w ord s,

p oetry u ses the best w ord s in the best ord er. That is w hy, d ealing
w ith p oetry is d ealing w ith langu age at a higher level than u su al.
Words, images, sounds, and meaning are very carefully intertwined.

Students w riting English p oetry, at m ost, find that am ong the

elem ents that bu ild u p the p oetry, rhym e and rhythm are the m ost
d ifficu lt to m ake. H ow ever, it d oes not m ean that stu d ents cannot
really m ake them . Thesau ru s can help them d eal w ith rhym e, w hile
good dictionary helps them deal with rhythm.
Not e: Naimah, Rina Adriana, and A.A. Hasaniah are t hree among 35 st udent s undert aking
“Poet ry 1’ course at t he English Depart ment , Makassar St at e Univ ersit y , in Academic y ear 2005-
2006.

REFERENCES

_______ (1992). The Aust ralian Combined Dict ionary Thesaurus.

Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Craig, Alexand er. Ed (1971). 12 Poet s 1950-1970. Brisbane: Jacarand a
Press.
Fred erick, J. Tirajoh. (1988). English Poet ry . An introd u ction to
Indonesian Students. Jakarta: Depdikbud
H u rford , Christop her. Ed. (1996). The Giant Book of Fav ourit e Verse.
London: Magpies Book Ltd.
Kenned y, X.J & Dana Gioia. (1995). Literature: An Introd u ction to
Fiction, Poetry, and Dram a, Sixth Ed ition. N ew York:
HarperCollins Publishers
Perrine, Laurence. (1969) Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry,
Third Edition. New York: Harcourt & Brace and World Inc.
Wallace, Robert. (1991). Writing Poems. Third Ed ition. N ew York:
HarperCollins Publishers
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