Use words that will involve all the senses so your reader is completely immersed in your poem. The words can represent sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste, and motion.
(a) Metaphor:
A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true, but helps explain an idea or make a comparison. For example - Chaos is a friend of mine. Bob Dylan
(b) Simile:
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two things. Although similes and metaphors are similar, similes explicitly use connecting words (such as like, as, so, than, or various verbs such as resemble), though these specific words are not always necessary. For example - As black as coal.
(c) Hyperbole:
Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. It uses extreme exaggeration to make a point or show emphasis. It is the opposite of understatement. For example - That joke is so old, the last time I heard it I was riding a dinosaur.
The beauty of poetry is its viewpoint and of a poet is their vision. A poem should show a different side of the reader’s everyday objects and bring about a fresh perspective to it.
Rhyme, along with a meter helps make a poem musical and enjoyable to the ears whereas a free verse describes the patterns of everyday speech to bring more attention.
Reading poems of other poets not only helps build a vocab database but also gives perspectives. Revising over and over again will help polish the nooks and corners of your poem.
Besides tips, you can also explore different styles of poetry like:
Sonnet:
Sonnets are short rhyming poems that are written in 14 lines. This form was inventedin the 13th century by Dante and Francisco Petrarch. Both were Italian poets from the early renaissance period. The form was developed later on further by writers like Shakespeare. Sonnets use the iambic meter in each line and useline-ending rhymes. The Shakespeare Sonnets are built with 3 quatrains (4 line stanzas) followed by 1 couplet (2 line stanza) and the rhyming scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. You can read 'In The Shadow of Your Warm Love' and 'A geisha's tale' by Shakespeare to understand better.
Limerick:
Limericks are a five-line witty poem with a distinctive rhythm. The first, second and fifth lines, the longer lines, rhyme. The third and fourth shorter lines rhyme. To summarise here is the scheme: A-A-B-B-A.
This five line poem also follows a syllable count.
Line 1: 7-10 syllables
Line 2: 7-10 syllables
Line 3: 5-7 syllables
Line 4: 5-7 syllables
Line 5: 7-10 syllables
You can read Examples of Limericks like My Foolish Dog and The Elderly Toilet
Haiku:
Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry that follows a specific syllable pattern. It's made up of 3 lines, consisting of 17 syllables in total. Haikus are usually about a specific part of nature. This ancient form of poem writing is renowned for its small size as well as the precise punctuation and syllables needed on its three lines. It is of ancient Asian origin. Line 1: 5 syllables Line 2: 7 syllables Line 3: 5 syllables Examples of Haikus are: Spring and October's Gold
Villanelle:
The villanelle is a nineteen-line poetic form consisting of five tercets followed by a quatrain. There are two refrains and two repeating rhymes, with the first and third line of the first tercet repeated alternately until the last stanza, which includes both repeated lines.