Patchword.com : Writers' Craft

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An Editor's Preferences

Gwyneth Box

As editor of Patchword, I receive all sorts of submissions from visitors to the site. Most are for the poetry anthology. Unfortunately, most of these submissions are rejected as they are quite unsuitable.

I had hoped that readers would be able to deduce what sort of poetry I’m looking for by reading the Patchword contemporary anthology. However, it seems this isn’t so. In view of this, I’ve been compiling a list of things that I think are important in poetry. It’s true that there are classics included on Patchword which contravene almost all of the following points; one justification is that they are classics. They have stood the test of time and are worth including whether or not they would stand up to my current demands.

First of all, let me make it clear that I have no special formula which defines poetry, although there are certain things that I look for. No doubt not all poets would agree with me about all of the following, but it may help those readers who would like to see their work appear on Patchword.

I like:

Sound devices: By this I don’t simply mean full end-rhyme, but all sonic elements of language: alliteration, assonance, consonance, full rhyme and half rhyme.
The problem with full rhymes is that it is all too often necessary to force the word order into something twisted and contrived simply so that the rhymed word comes in the right place. We are all guilty of doing this at times: there are plenty of pieces in my own files where I have done just that, but these poems are not likely to appear in public unless I can improve them. The rhyme should be there subtly: it shouldn’t be contrived or dominating in any way.

Punctuation: good (helpful) punctuation which works in conjunction with line breaks.

Meaningful line breaks: Personally I like playing with the ambiguities that can be produced by careful line breaks. If you can add an extra interpretation of a phrase by moving the break, I think it’s worth considering.

Traditional grammar: All right, poetry isn’t restricted to perfect prose grammar. But I see no need for awkward ‘poetic’ inversions, or the use of archaic forms unless they add something to the poem.

Ambiguity: I like words I can read in two ways (both relevant, rather than distracting) and line breaks that encourage deeper thought. Germanic-root words are often more flexible than Latin ones – “rage”, for example, can be a noun or an imperative and by careful positioning such words can add a dimension to a poem.

I don’t like:

Bad scansion: If you are writing metrical poetry it should be carefully constructed. This doesn’t mean that you can’t have occasional variations – in fact these are probably necessary to keep the reader’s interest. But it’s always worth asking someone else to read your work (and read it aloud) to see if they trip over problem lines which you haven’t noticed because you know what to expect.
Free verse is fine, too: in fact often it’s preferable, as a strict meter can easily become doggerel if badly handled.

Careless mistakes: (Spelling, typos, special characters etc.) If you write using a word processor and then cut your poem to embed in an e-mail (the way I like to receive submissions) you need to check all the special characters, typographical quotes etc. Saving as plain text should avoid these problems. And always check your apostrophes: wrongly used “it’s” is one of my pet hates.

End stops: Well, too many end stops. If every line of your poem corresponds to a complete phrase it’s hard to build up any kind of momentum or atmosphere for your reader.

Formal vocabulary: Obviously it depends on the poem, but the register of the vocabulary should correspond to the subject matter and handling.

Clichés: Perfume has a tendency to linger, faces are pale, tears cascade etc. Try and think of a new way to describe things. Or of new things to describe.

Telling not showing: I want to see, hear, smell, taste and touch what’s happening in the poem. Don’t simply tell me you’re unhappy or in love: I want to know how it makes you feel.

Personal journal poetry: There’s nothing wrong with writing about how you feel about the things that happen to you in real life. However, for me to consider that this is poetry and not simply something for your personal diary, you need to be showing me that it has a greater relevance: that it’s not just about you.

Big subjects: Unless viewed from the perspective of a small instance, big subjects – Love, Life, Peace, Death etc – are very hard to write about successfully. The tendency is to write in clichés as it’s so difficult to find something real to say about such big abstractions. If you can find a small incident which illustrates a big concept you will probably write a far better poem.

I question:

Single word lines: These can be successful, but should be used with care.

Lowercase “i”: All too often this is just an affectation. And it’s an affectation that doesn’t appeal to me.

Ellipses: Used properly, the ellipsis (…) indicates that something is missing or that a list is unfinished. It’s similar to “etc”. Too often, I see it used to indicate a pause.

“Clever” layouts & formatting: For me, poetry is aural and oral rather than visual. This means that although presentation (centring on the page, for example) can add to the effect, the poem needs to stand alone without it. When a poem read aloud, the line breaks will have an effect on the pausing and intonation, but there is no way of indicating the sound of a centred poem.

Line end punctuation: Line breaks and punctuation should work together. Sometimes a punctuation mark would be required in prose but may be omitted in verse because the line breaks can serve the same purpose.

Adjectives: Well, of course you can use adjectives. But choose them carefully. Adjectives tend to weaken the nouns they are attached to. One is almost always sufficient.

An excess of “ing” words, articles, pronouns: All of these should be watched. Using verbs in the simple form – “the dog barks” rather than “the dog is barking” can help to make a piece more immediate.

Capitalisation of all lines: Personally, I find this distracting. In general, modern poetry tends to use normal prose capitalisation.

Remember that the above are mainly guidelines about my personal preferences. I can still like poetry which directly contravenes almost all the points, but that will be because it has something else to offer, or because the poet has chosen to use techniques I am not fond of and used them effectively.