Reddit reviews Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse
We found 2 Reddit comments about Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Read lots of poetry, and not just old stuff.
Read criticisms and histories of poetry.
Read books about writing poetry. Some that I recommend:
In the Palm of Your Hand
Ordinary Genius
A Poetry Handbook
and if you're into Formalist poetry (rhyming) you may also like:
Rules for the Dance
The Making of a Poem
All The Fun's In How You Say A Thing
Write poetry. Keep writing it. Keep changing it. Scrap it. Start over.
Get criticism by posting to a forum. For metered poetry I recommend Able Muse.
If you believe your words are gospel, then just accept the feedback and move on with your life. If you want to start down the road of legitimately writing poetry that someone who actually reads poetry can appreciate, it's time to get to fucking work.
Of course, you think your "words" are special, but they aren't. This is the same thing every beginner churns out. It's cliché abstraction and it's not worth sharing with anyone. You can call it "poetry" and say it's your "art" and that poetry can't be "defined" -- whatever.
But anyone who actually reads poetry will recognize your "words" immediately for what they are and turn the page.
Read some poetry, man. Read some books about writing poetry and the tools poets use to craft their poems. If you need recommendations, I can give you some, but you'll have to do some fucking work. You might have missed the memo, but writing poetry is hard work.
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Edit: Here some recommendations to get you started.
And if you insist on trying to use end rhymes:
And please, please pick up a good book of poems from multiple authors so you can get some exposure, such as the Norton Anthology of Poetry or the compilation Good Poems by Garrison Keillor. One of my favorites is A Book of Luminous Things by Czeslaw Milosz.