“Roses are… Violets are” poems are sweet, but you’re a write, and they don’t even get close to your standards. So please, go for quality.
If you missed your opportunity this year, there’s always the next. If not, go ahead and send a late Valentines poem. There’s still time, unless you’re about to die.
So here’s some tips to keep in mind:
- Pick a style. What do you want your love to feel? Make her cry? Make her excited? Annoyingly longing? Remember this when writing your poems. Remember though, even though your story is expressed with love, this may not be echoed in your love’s heart. Don’t explain how sad you are and expect an equal reaction. Induce sadness. Induce excitement. An ebullient style doesn’t necessarily have to be echoed. Hearts aren’t as mimetic as we might believe, so make sure your poem creates, not shows.
- Outline. Yes. Here too. Don’t try to skip this. Do it. What will you start with? An antecedent? A question? Go on, write exactly what you’re going to do.
- Lengthen. Recopy your poem and make it better. Use a Rhyme Dictionary, as it’ll immensely help your poem. Make sure your syllables line up.
- Edit. Go back and replace stupid adjectives, adverbs and verbs with more descriptive versions of themselves. This is when you make everything impressive.
- Revise. Read here for advice on revising just about anything.
- Rewrite. Copy what you wrote into your favorite visual publisher program. Word works fine. Insert pictures, preferably those that you drew yourselves, into the document. Pictures should generally be red and white.
- Visualize. Option One — Computer: Choose Valentines Day-themed colors. Use an appropriate font. Fiolex Girls MS is a font that comes with Vista and is especially designed for writing love poems. I would only use it for the title, and probably make the rest Vivaldi, Edwardian Script, Freestyle Script, French Script, or something of the sort. Bold the text, make it white and make the background red, pink, or a combo of the two.
Option Two –Write: If you have a nice handwriting, this is the choice for you. Write it on a plain sheet of white paper, glued onto a pink/red piece of paper. Calligraphy pens are a good idea. I suggest you use one if you have one. - Frame. Optional, but good anyway. Use a red border.
- Present with flowers/candy/some other type of present.
