Short poems: how to think and write them

Writing short poems (2-4 lines) might initially seem easier than longer alternatives. However, when engaging in this, the first problem to be solved is the correspondence between the imagined meaning and the meaning induced in the reader. The semantic “place” of reference must be objective: one cannot refer to something unknown to the public or blatantly subjective.

If, for example, a little girl owns a doll named Camilla who has lost an arm, she might express her mood of dissatisfaction by writing just two lines:

Like Camilla, 
I listen to those who speak to me.

Knowing the reality of “Camilla,” these verses are perfectly intelligible and make one imagine a person who, despite her very young age, lives her relationships with distraction because she feels that she lacks something irreplaceable.

Similarly, short poems based on subjective concepts can be written quite easily. Indeed, it is enough to use (or abuse, depending on your point of view) metaphor to associate two concepts, one of which is objective, while the other is subjective. If, for example, the same child hates the taste of oranges, she might describe a situation of disgust by writing:

My glass, 
filled with orange juice, 
While friends laugh joyfully.

Again, the verses have their intrinsic meaning, but a reader unaware of the hatred of oranges could never understand on what semantic basis the poem is based. So let us try to begin this brief exploration with the pros and cons of short poems, and then paraphrase some famous examples and define a “strategy” for writing expressive and aesthetically pleasing verse.

This article is about “Western” short poems. If you are interested in haiku, I have written a short guide that may help you. I also invite you to read my poems (including short essays) in the appropriate section of this site.

The pros and cons of short poems

Pro

• Conciseness: Short poems are characterized by their short length, allowing a message to be communicated quickly and effectively.
• Rapid message transmission: Due to the brevity of short poems, the message can be understood and received in a few moments.
• Expressive force: Despite their short length, short poems manage to express intense and powerful emotions.
• Semantic attachment to complex and evocative concepts: Short poems can use precise and essential language to evoke complex images and concepts.
• Ease of memorization and mental processing: Short poems are more accessible to memorize and mentally process than longer texts due to their brevity.

Cons

• Limited amount of information: The extreme brevity of short poems limits the amount of information that can be conveyed.
• Little semantic space: Short poems may have less space for developing complex or detailed themes because of their short length.
• Increased risk of misunderstanding: Because of extreme synthesis, short poems may be misinterpreted or misunderstood.
• Need to use objective concepts exclusively: Short poems often require objective concepts, with limited opportunity to express more abstract or subjective concepts.
• Absence of terms that can express complex concepts: The brevity of short poems can make it difficult to express complex concepts that require more semantic space.

Why write short poems?

Are you a student, artist, educator, writer, or author? Do you want to express your inner world uniquely and creatively? Hence, short poems are what you need!

Short poems allow you to leverage your objective and emotional experience to create an accurate poetic code. Once the reader processes, this code will reveal a multifaceted and colorful world. Every word, every verse, and every image you use becomes a brush to paint your soul and tell your deepest emotions.

In other words, you can express yourself through short poems, allowing you to connect with others authentically and meaningfully. Your words will have the power to touch the innermost chords of the soul of the listener or reader. The poems’ brevity allows them to convey a powerful message in a few words, capturing attention and leaving a lasting impression.

Whether you are a student eager to express your inner world, an artist seeking new forms of expression, an educator wanting to stimulate the creativity of your students, a writer seeking inspiration, or an author eager to capture the attention of readers, short poems are the perfect tool for you. Start writing today and discover what an excellent artistic tool they are!

Ungaretti’s “extreme” hermeticism and his two most famous short poems

No discussion related to short poems can be made without mentioning the great Italian poet Giuseppe Ungaretti, who, participating firsthand in the Great War, used poetry as an “escape route” from the horror of the bloody battles, at the end of which, the corpses of his comrades lay motionless beside him, creating a sense of most profound bitterness and inner desolation.

Precisely from this consideration, Ungaretti decided to communicate to the world the state of mind of the soldiers massed inside a trench while bombs were constantly bursting in the short distance. As already explained in the introduction, he could have quoted his comrades and their stories. He could, for example, have written:

Tony's wife fantasizes, 
without knowing it.

Perhaps Tonio was his fellow soldier who had married shortly before the outbreak of war, and his wife, newly left alone, could take refuge in the idea of projects to be completed when her husband returned. However, far too many informational elements are, in this case, unknown to readers, and this, while not wholly undermining it, weakens the expressive power of the poem.

Ungaretti, on the other hand, as a great artist, chose an objective metaphor known by all that synthesized in a straightforward image the profound sense of precariousness felt by those living through that tragedy. His celebrated poem “Soldiers” consists of four concise lines:

We stay
as in autumn
on the trees
the leaves.

Semantic association as a “magic wand” for writing short poems

In this case, Ungaretti makes a simile and relates soldiers to the leaves of non-evergreen trees during the fall season. Nature offers countless cues, and the poet’s skill must be to seize the best of them to effectively and efficiently (i.e., principle of economy) render the mental image he wishes to communicate.

This technique is potent and can become a precious tool for rendering the details of a situation through a different but still objectively known image. Just as everyone knows that trees lose their leaves, everyone (or almost everyone) must have experienced what is used as the object of the simile.

I bring another example of a short poem of mine called “Adolescence” (from about 15 years ago) that received some awards:

The transfixed obstinacy
bit the days, 
like a dog 
the leg of a chair.

Here again, we are in the presence of a “strategic” simile that focuses the reader’s attention: adolescent stubbornness is equated with a dog stubbornly gnawing on the wooden leg of a chair. An image that everyone has seen in person or through other media.

The “power” of comparison between very different semantic domains is a catalyst that focuses attention first on one element and, soon after, catapults it into another world, where a second scene takes place that recalls the elements of the first (ed. sometimes, as in Ungaretti’s case, the antecedent is implied or present in the title of the poem). This mechanism condenses long explanations into a few words and is almost always present in Hermetic poetic production.

Ungaretti’s most famous poem

Everyone who has heard of Ungaretti knows (if only because of its brevity) the poem “Morning.”

I brighten up
with immensity.

In this case, two verses form a single period of only four words. Once again, the poetic economy is maximized, and the title plays a vital role as the bearer of information. Just as in “Soldiers,” without which the poem cannot be fully understood, in this case, the first element to start with is the noun “Morning.”

The poet is talking here about the beginning of the day, but, at the same time, also about a beginning in a broader sense. It is a time of existential whiteness, similar to that of newborn babies, which gives strength, hope, and vitality. The annoyances of life will come later, but as soon as you open your eyes to the new day, all contrariety is still slumbering and far away.

The technique used is based on the juxtaposition of a verb that existentially defines the subject (i.e., in this case, “enlighten”) with a hyperbolic or decontextualized term that “closes” the verses in an almost violent manner. To denote the well-being of this “embryonic” state of one’s existence (on any time scale), immensity is evoked here, an indefinite word that nevertheless calls to mind the quasi-synonym “infinity.” Thus, what the poet expresses is a dual concept:

• The object of enlightenment is the immense, an indefinable transcendence that can only be enjoyed passively.
• The extent of enlightenment is so great that it appears limitless, immense, infinite.

We can use this technique to compose some short verses:

Drunk with silence, 
I stare at your empty 
pillow.

The action (although there is no artistic ambition) is focused on the first verse. Just as one cannot enlighten oneself with immensity, neither can one get drunk with silence; but separating, as we did earlier, the two realms, the former defines an existential antecedent, being drunk, that is, in an altered state of consciousness characterized by strong disinhibition and a sense of artificial calm. The second connects the cause of this condition to a lack, existential emptiness, and loneliness: in a word, silence.

The remaining verses serve as filler to give the described condition a space-time location. That is, they play the role that Ungaretti assigns to the title. Wanting to imitate the great master, one could call the poem “Solitude” (or by a similar term) and reduce it to just the first line broken in two. Doing the same analysis shown above, we would have:

• The object of drunkenness is not the wine but the unbroken silence that becomes more intrusive than the din.
• The peculiar quality of intoxication, which is not the canonical one, but is here represented by an existential emptiness that, precisely because of the absence of terms of comparison, disinhibits (after all, what should one be inhibited toward?) and leads to a kind of calmness that becomes akin to catatonia.

Short poems based on “total” realism

This category (which is only functional for the article) encompasses compositions that merely show reality in its objective particularity. They do not contain apparent elements (such as, “today is Tuesday, tomorrow will be Wednesday”) but conditions that, in their “strangeness,” force the reader to think. If, for example, I wrote:

It's noon, 
it's pitch black for me.

I would assert two truths that, put side by side, seem to define a very particular picture. The first verse, in fact, only enunciates a time of day that no one can question. Such a moment, barring total eclipses is characterized by maximum brightness, but the second verse, through the peremptory use of an initial “for me,” states the exact opposite. The subjective characterization is sufficient to break down any possible objection. In fact, “my” condition may lead me not to perceive the light or to reject it without a second thought.

The expressive power of Bukowski’s American realism.

An example of this approach is given to us by Charles Bukowski, who writes:

Love breaks
my bones
and I laugh.

The poem, in its brevity, is complete in itself. Of course, one might ask the poet why he is laughing when he should be screaming in pain. But that does not matter; it is just a minor detail we may not be aware of. What is manifested in the brevity is the juxtaposition of a first concept with its semantic “directionality” and a second, which seems to “reverse direction.” These two contrasting movements create a stasis that focuses on an actual image (i.e., no longer based on similes or metaphors) but is even cynical or grotesque.

Short poems that affirm subjectivity through objective concepts

This approach is based, for example, on the subjective perception of a reality, which, according to the poet’s thinking, can also be shared by his readers. This category includes aphoristic texts written in an artistic vein and, therefore, with a choice of vocabulary, metrics, and sounds typical of poetry.

An example that I classify in this “category” is Emily Dickinson’s short poem, “I am Nobody. Who are you?”

I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don't tell! they'd advertise – you know!

How dreary – to be – Somebody!
How public – like a Frog –
To tell one’s name – the livelong June –
To an admiring Bog!

The poem is certainly not one of the shortest, but one must consider the poet’s style and the choice to create a premise to the second quatrain, which represents, in my opinion, the semantic center of gravity of the poem. After the statement of (not) being nobody (ed. the double negation, although in everyday use in Italian, is not present in English), Dickinson “jumps” to the reason for her conviction.

It is tedious to listen to the boisterous chatter of those who feign admiration for their fellow man. The comparison with the frog is, in fact, peremptory: although the frog is not a particularly beautiful animal, it is surrounded by other more or less similar frogs, who may feel (or feign) admiration for what is, after all, only a perhaps more giant or “graceful” frog.

Despite the subjectivity of this belief (which could be questioned without any problem), the poet is strong in its potentially universal value. Confirmation of this comes from the second verse, whether the reader is also a nobody. Should the answer be negative, according to logic, the rest of the poem could be safely discarded since it starts from the statement of the above proposition. In this sense, a process of objectification takes place that is based on the assumption taken up in the second quatrain.

An example from Robert Frost’s production

Another example that might even escape poetic reading is the short poem “Immigrants” by Robert Frost:

No ship of all that under sail or steam
Have gathered people to us more and more
But Pilgrim-manned the Mayflower in a dream
Has been her anxious convoy in to shore.

This short poem expresses an observation about the Mayflower ship and a pilgrim’s deep desire to leave his homeland for a distant destination where he could begin a new life experience. The structure of the composition has a fairly classical form based on the comparison, “Just as … Then ….” Several poets have used it fruitfully, and it remains a highly effective way to express the value of either term. To clarify this concept, it is sufficient to read the concise poem:

Like the sun at noon 
your eyes enchant me.

The idea is to start with the term of comparison, have it “expand” like a bubble, and then let it burst in the second part, which, as consequential, will be further magnified in its value.

The expressive power of short poems: Quasimodo and his observation of human loneliness

Alternatively, one can resort to a “Foreword – Conclusion” type structure, in which, precisely, it is the foreword that slows down the pace to allow the conclusion to appear after a dizzying crescendo. Perhaps the most apt example is Salvatore Quasimodo’s celebrated poem “And it is immediately evening”:

Everyone stands alone on the heart of the world
Pierced by a sunbeam:
And it is soon evening.

Although there is no comparison, the structure has the same function, and its effect is similar to that induced by the previous examples. Moreover, the poet cleverly uses a “colon” as a demarcation element in this case. The poem could be limited to its title and the composition’s heart. But without the premise, this would lead to a range of possible interpretations that would make objectification impossible.

On the contrary, in affirming the loneliness of every man and his relation to a piercing sun, Quasimodo extended his subjective perception of reality to the audience. With the vigor of a fortissimo orchestral player, this allows him to state the critical concept he has in mind.

Conclusions

In conclusion, short poems represent a concentration of meaning in a few lines, taking advantage of the principle of poetic economy. When carefully thought out and crafted, such compositions can strike a deep chord more effectively than longer, more verbose texts. Writing short poems is not tricky, and the examples provided can serve as a stimulus to begin composing.

Express your creativity by jotting down what comes to mind. Today, you can use a smartphone to reread these poetic “sketches” and maybe develop better alternatives. Why not? You can decide to put together several of them and make them public! Poetry is alive. Remember that! And don’t miss the opportunity to explore additional related resources!

Reference texts

SELECTED POEMS

• A major new translation of one of Italy's greatest modern poetsGiuseppe Ungaretti (1888-1970) was a pioneer of the Modernist movement in Italian poetry and is widely regarded as one of the leading Italian poets of the twentieth century
• His verse is renowned and loved for its powerful insight and emotion, and its exquisite music
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• This book, which includes the preferred form of each of the 1,775 poems that she wrote, enables the reader to see as a whole the work of this remarkable poetic genius, the complexity of her personality, the fluctuation of her moods and the development of her style
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• Featuring earlier works by Robert Frost, James Weldon Johnson, and Wallace Stevens along with examples from the new generation of critically acclaimed poets, including A
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• With passion and wit, Mary Oliver skillfully imparts expertise from her long, celebrated career as a disguised poet
• She walks readers through exactly how a poem is built, from meter and rhyme, to form and diction, to sound and sense, drawing on poems by Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, and others
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