15 Poems to Avoid
- The “very punny”
- The overly enthusiastic— Dickinson!— Fan!
- The simile that’s as overused as your favorite tee-shirt
- The cliché that has all the teenagers rolling their eyes moodily
- The hyperbolic behemoth, the extreme titan of a poem to end all poems, born of Apollo and watched over by Poe’s own raven
- Speaking of which…anything involving a raven or a blackbird. Crows are iffy at best.
- The poem that r e l i e s TOO much
on form
to make a point
that could have been
(made)
easily
- Don’t understate
- TOO ABSTRACT TO UNDERSTAND
- O! To attempt to venture thither and evoke the language of previous poets! Muses, be with me as I attempt to elucidate my Reader on the dangerous ignus fatuus of Trying Too Hard!
- The nonsensical metaphor, a bird in a pair of fishnet stockings
- The repetition, the repetition, the repetition, the repetition, the repetition, the repetition, the repetition, the repetition, the repetition, the repetition, the repetition, the repetition, the repetition, the repetition
- Beware: when it comes to rhyming it’s all about timing.
- The poem that spends too much time in a field of flowers, or in any proximity to a rosebush, especially a beautiful rosebush that also contains thorns.
- When it comes to list poems, you’re on thin ice. So just watch yourself.
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