Give Your Poems Sense Appeal

By

Mona Hodgson

 

 

Drawing a reader into your writing involves appealing to the senses—sight sound, smell, taste, touch. While a single poem may not contain references to or imply all of the senses, it should awaken at least one of them and create reader empathy for your experience or subject. The Bible is a great place to look for examples.

 

Note how Jonah described his experience in the belly of the fish.

For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods

compassed me about: all the billows and thy waves passed over me…. I went

down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me

for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. [i]

 

You can sense being cast into the deep and sinking to the bottoms of the mountains, the imprisonment, and his hopelessness. We are compelled to empathize with him because our senses have been awakened. And because he showed us the depths, we are moved to rejoice with him when he writes “yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption.”

                         

Exercising Sense Appeal

Starting at the top of a blank page, make five columns, one for each of the senses—sight sound, smell, taste and touch. As you read through Jonah’s passage again, look for the words and phrases that indicate or infer one of the senses. Then list them in the appropriate column. Which of the senses were predominant in that passage, sight, sound, smell, taste, or touch?

 

My poem Boxing God offers a second example.

Tugging on

cardboard flaps,

I sputter,

“B-b-but….”

 

Straining

to manipulate stressed

seams, I argue,

“If only….”

 

Reaching

for more packaging tape, I

crease the carton’s

corners. “Why?” I demand.

 

Pressed by life,

I fold. Then You

envelop me

whispering, “I AM!”  MH

 

 

Using the same sheet of paper you used for Jonah, put Boxing God to the column test. Look for the words or phrases that indicate or infer one of the senses and place them in the appropriate column. Which of the senses is predominant in Boxing God?

 

Testing Your Poem’s Sense Appeal

Pull out one of your poems and see how it stacks up in the columns. Did you put any ingredients into your poetic pot that would stir the senses? If not, change or add words to help your readers see, smell, taste, hear and feel your poem.

 

Engaging Your Readers’ Senses

Poetry is the heart expressing itself using language’s sharpest tools. Here are some tips to help you breathe life into your poems.

 

Draw from your senses

 

·        Become better aware of your surroundings, using all of your senses. Explore sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings.

·        Develop the habit of recording them. Here are some examples from my notebook—a pigeon stepping off a curb, the pungent odor of burning weeds, the shrill sound of a cricket at 2am., the pang of leaving my daughter at her university dorm, the metallic taste of campfire coffee.

 

Use specific details 

 

The reader is better able to bring their senses to the image when it is specific. Don't say tree when you can say weeping willow or oak. One is wispy and soft, the other is stout and powerful.

Take another look at my poem, Boxing God and underline any specific details you find.

 

Now, you try it. List three or more descriptive (specific) nouns for each of the following:

1)      a chair

2)      a boat

 

Specific detail can set the tone and mood of your poem. What was the tone and mood in Jonah’s

Passage?

 

Read and Test

 

Magazines and anthologies give you the opportunity to taste a variety of forms and styles. Be sure to sample what's being published today, along with past masterpieces. Examine each poem’s sense appeal.

 

Editing for Sense Appeal

In your editing process, before you submit your poem to an editor, test it. Will your reader be engaged through his or her senses? Using the column test or a colored pen, seek out the words and phrases that at least hint at one of the senses. Are they varied? And centered on something other than only on the sense of seeing?

 

Through the use of sense appeal you can help your readers see what you see, smell, hear, taste, and feel what you feel.