How do you start a poem? Where do first lines in poetry come from? This prompt guides you through generating great first lines.
Read below or find the full prompt at Poemancer.
First Lines in Poetry: Free Write Questionnaire
Before we look at some first lines in poetry, fill out this questionnaire in a notebook or writing pad. Theyâll be useful for you later.
Answer the following questions in whatever way you wish: honestly, creatively, however.
Describe your experience of the past 7 weeksâbut only respond in a list of images.
Describe something you are currently struggling with or fighting against. Use a simile or metaphor to illustrate the intensity or complexity of this struggle.
What is a constant reminder you have to give yourself?
Ad libs time! Finish these sentences with the first word that comes to mind. Do not worry about making linear sense.
Because of [adjective] [noun] [verb], I decided to [verb] [noun] [adjective].
Instead of [noun, verb, or adjective], I like [different part of speech than previously used].
[concrete noun], [abstract noun], [verb ending in -ing]â[what connects these 3 things?].
What desire or fantasy causes you the greatest shame?
What question do you ask every day, hoping to stumble upon the answer?
Poem: âSunset Park Sunsetâ by Lindsay Turner
Originally published in The Harvard Review.Â
Surprise and aspiration are such killjoys:
suddenly the sky turns pink. Once
I had an apple, at the core it tasted
like a pear. These things are inaudible
but they change my throat: Iâd say, oh
just let us leave this party or this town, this
preposterous industry and its permanent
haze: so much here is wanting
to be elsewhere, a self-shaped hole
in the permanent haze. Then I dreamed
I crossed the river to the cliffs and the city
on the cliffs, the gondola
turned sideways a little and the river seen
not looking down but looking
sideways from the corners of my eyes was nothing
but the texture of water, not black
not gold and most of all
not blue. All the while the sun
is setting, memory gets more delicate, I shake off
tension as if it were also just
remembered: itâs like holding
a quail egg in your hand, in your closed hand:
you can crush it, you can open your hand
and eat it, you can keep on holding it
Divinations
I love this poemâs first line. I donât know that I agree with it, but I find it hilarious to think that surprise, in particular, is a killjoy. But then, if aspiration is more predictable than surprise, why is that a killjoy, too?
This is a speaker who announces herself immediately, with a voice and perspective that is entertaining and commands my attention.
Great first lines in poetry often do this: they tell us who is speaking to us and why, and they do so through careful attention to language.
Great first lines in poetry tell us who is speaking to us and why.
So, why are surprise and aspiration such killjoys? The poem doesnât necessarily answer that, but we get to foray, briefly, through the mind of this particular speaker, who wants to âleave this party or this town, this / preposterous industry and its permanent / haze.â
Sunsets, in particular, hold great symbolism for her. We know this because of the titleâand her rather aloof response to the pinking skyâbut we also know it because of these line:
the river seen
not looking down but looking
sideways from the corners of my eyes was nothing
but the texture of water, not black
not gold and most of all
not blue. All the while the sun
is setting, memory gets more delicate, I shake off
tension as if it were also just
remembered
This is happening in a dream, according to her, but she takes pains to point out the color of the water has nothing to do with the color of the sky, only to follow that with the real pain of the sunset: its corresponding delicacy of memory.
A lot of this poem is gestural. We donât know what the speaker remembers, only that she does not want to. The journey of this poem is more emotional than narrative, somehow both general and personal. Which is a hard tightwire to walk, only made possible because of an enchanting voice thatâs felt at the first line.
Ways of Approaching First Lines in Poetry
So, how do you start a poem? Where does a first line of poetry come from?
Often, the first lines of my own poems will change between first draft and final. So if youâre worried about starting somewhere perfect, or even somewhere good, remember that perfect or good canât happen if you donât at least start.
Nonetheless, here are some ways of writing first lines in poetry:
Start where it hurts:Â Donât wait to name whatever pain or feeling is bringing you to poetry. Begin with that feeling, and let the poem explore, unfold, and transform it.
Say the unexpected: I like when a poem comes out of the gate with an image, idea, or take that I would never expect to encounter.
Begin with metaphor or simile: These devices can help build the world of your poem, immediately driving us to your particular mood or setting.
Tell a story in media res: Latin for âin the middle of things,â in media res is a useful narrative tool for dropping the reader in the thick of conflict. A poem can do this, too.
Ask a question:Â particularly a question that is difficult to answer, or demands an answer in poetry.
Juxtapose:Â I also like it when a poem puts things next to each other that you donât expect together. Give me some poetic orange juice and toothpaste!
Here are some first lines of poems that accomplish one or more of the above:
Other Great First Lines of Poems
Here are some poems whose first lines I admire.
Time
John WeinersÂ
June, then Septemberâlife dredges past
Asking About You
Eloise Klein HealyÂ
Instead of having sex all the time I like to hold you and
Summer Was Forever
Chen ChenÂ
Time dripped from the faucet like a magicianâs botched trick.
Prayer for Containment
Rochelle HurtÂ
O my luscious muzzle, my savory switch,
An American in Hollywood
Frank BidartÂ
After you were bitten by a wolf and transformedÂ
The End of the Pride Parade
D. A. PowellÂ
I went to the parade and watched people wave at Wells Fargo.Â
The Way the World Comes Back
Janet McAdamsÂ
When did you notice it was no longer winter?
First Lines in Poetry Prompt
Look at the lines you wrote from the questionnaire. Use one of these lines as the first line of your poem.
If none of them feel like particularly useful doorways, use the above examples as inspiration to generate a first line, and then write a poem that answers the call of your first poetic line.
Now that everyone is discussing Nolan's Odyssey movie, I feel like it's a good time to let non-Italians know that the production dumped plastic props into the Italian sea. Weirdly enough I could not find any article in English about it but it's a fucking problem nonetheless.
I might translate this article later today. This one was the most complete one, even in Italian news it's not talked about that much.
Non è la prima volta che la produzione solleva un vespaio in Sicilia. A Lipari una squadra di sub sarebbe però già impegnata a bonificare i
They dumped plastic skeletons in environmentally protected areas, against the literal contracts they had to sign to get the permits to film in environmentally protected areas. Like they not only did a bad ecological thing that freaked out some divers, they literally broke environmental protection laws and their contract with the Italian government
the fact that "bargaining" is a stage of grief. + the fact that when I'm in extreme pain all I can do is lie on the floor and say "please please please" = we are such social animals. we really really really just have a brain that is wired for "surely there must be a way I can interact with someone else that will fix this" even under the most extreme of circumstances, where any rational thought will see a total absence of guys, such as when one is alone in the woods dying of exposure. humans have such a big hole inside us that's for "Someone Else" like a social placeholder such that we keep engineering stuff like religion in a million different ways in a million different places and times. we gotta have
1. social
2. narrative
and if none is provided to us we will make our own out of dirt and sticks
I love humans and I also find us kind of heartbreaking honestly
Something about the bastardization of the story time and time again proves that nobody in power really cares about the people who would resonate with Kingâs Carrie White. A girl so ugly and repulsive sheâs been removed from her own story. The societal need for women and girls to be constantly perceived as attractive is what fuels a fair amount of her torment in the book, but that person isnât even allowed to exist on the screen. We cannot empathize with her; it isnât allowed. Itâs fascinating to me.
IDK I think if cis men are being told that being fat will lower their testosterone and make them Insufficiently Masculine, and cis women are being told that being fat will raise their testosterone and make them Excessively Masculine, and fat trans people are being denied the right to medically transition if they're fat, and thin trans people are warned against HRT because it will make them fat (and this is said about both testosterone and estrogen HRT), and androgynous-presenting people are told that only thin people count as androgynous...
Then maybe...
Maybe...
Maybe the weight loss industry is just using Gender to enforce fatphobia.
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