How to Write a Cento

A cento is a poem that borrows lines from other poets to fashion a unique creation that may or may not include contrasting themes and styles. Writing a cento is a great way to get the creative juices flowing if you're having trouble coming up with thoughts of your own. Follow these steps to write a cento that will turn borrowed work into a work of your own.

Instructions

1. Structure the cento around a central theme or mood to create a sense of continuity. It's easy for a cento to sound disjointed because you're pulling from so many different sources. Having a theme will help you to pick from poets that typically depict that type of mood (see Resources below).

2. Choose poets from similar genres or literary periods if you want to create a cento with some grammatical consistency. Keep in mind that this is not a required step, but you may not want to mix seventeenth century English with contemporary euphemisms. The literary periods you pull from may also affect the meter and overall flow of how your cento sounds. You can even pick lines from one prolific poet.

3. Use only one line from a poem at a time, although you can repeat the same line as a refrain. The cento can be as long or short as you like.

4. Add some irony and contrast in strategic places within the cento. You may want to switch from melancholy, introspective tone to a jubilant, extroverted one at a point of transition. You can randomly include humorous analogies and scenes in a darker passage. Allow your creativity to control the choices while still striving for thematic continuity.

5. Keep track of all the different poets you use in the cento so you can cite them properly. A cento that doesn't give proper credit to its sources could be confused with plagiarism.

Resources

• Examples of centos