Attributes of a good poem.

Poetry has origins where it was sung or performed,not read,but since the 15^th century,reading poetry has increasingly become the preferred way of enjoying poetry,as literacy in the general population improved.Poetry changed accordingly,as shown by the development of eye rhyme,and haiku.Thus a good poem in our modern age is measured on the metric of how enjoyable it is when read.It is no accident that spoken word hasn’t made headway in Kenya,it hints to a past age of performance poetry,while the modern audience prefers to read poems,as the experience is better that way.

The first quality of a good poem is that it should be understandable easily by anyone with an average knowledge of the English language.For this to be so,poems need to be written in simple English,unless meant for a special audience that can understand hard to comprehend English.If you need a dictionary to understand the poem then it's not good enough!Shairis or swahili poems are not as popular as their English counterparts,for the simple reason that they are usually harder to understand,even for a swahili speaker!Simple and easy to understand is the way to write a good poem.

A good poem is written in such a way as to portray good imagination and creativity on the part of the poet.It should have descriptive language that makes use of as few words as possible to pass a point.Poetry is not prose,so the poet should not fall to the trap of many worded explanations,but should instead condense descriptions into a few appropriate words.

A well written poems should have the audience in mind,where the reader can relate to it’s message,as this enhances it’s appreciation by the reader.It provokes the reader to thinking of what the poet is hinting at.Usually,an emotional response is provoked on the reader as he reads the poem,like happiness or sadness,as they get to relate to the situation or moment in the poem.

Imagery and figurative language are essential in poetry,building an environment for the narrative,and sparking the readers imagination to the highs and lows of the art.While not all poems have rhyme or rhythm,most poems have them,and it gives the language a musical leaning which enhances it’s enjoyment.A good poet will also know what type of poem they are writing before hand,so as to adhere to poetry rules which make a poem more enjoyable to the reader.

Last but not least is that a poem is really a story in verse.Most poets are also good storytellers so this comes easy to them.This aspect of a poem being a story relates to how well the story is told,and is the single most important reason why some poems are considered better than others.Practice makes perfect,and the more you write poetry,the better you become in telling a story in verse.