How to Write a Pirate Poem

Make engaging pirates the center of your poetic efforts.

Rough-talking pirates, with their peg legs and the ever-present parrots perched on their shoulders, appeal to many. If you have an affinity for these up-to-no-good sea-goers, make one central to your next poetic effort. By using a pirate as your muse, you may be able to effectively craft a compelling poem that will encourage others to adopt your affinity for these ocean looters.

Instructions

1. Select the poetic form you will use to structure your poem. This will determine whether you must find words that rhyme with one another, or count syllables. To allow ultimate freedom in your poetic composition, use free-verse style, in which you are free to make your poem rhyme or not, and use rhythm as you see fit.

2. List words that come to mind when you think of a pirate. Divide a piece of paper into three columns, labeling one "Verb," one "Adjective" and one "Adverb." Fill these columns with words that relate to pirates that fit each part of speech. For example, you could write "hobble" or "growl" in the verb column, "scarred" or "stubbly" in the adjective column and "ferociously" or "evilly" in the adverb column.

3. Review a pirate image for inspiration. This can be helpful in finding adjectives for your pirate poem.

4. Choose a pirate-themed message or story to tell. To be effective, your poem should present some over-arching message. You may, for example, want to tell the tale of a pirate who, while he seemed evil, actually wanted to be a ballet dancer. Or you might send the message that pirates are not to be messed with.

5. Create a poem that tells this story or sends this message, using the pirate words you selected. As you are writing in free-verse, you do not need to feel hindered by rules of rhyming or other structural limitations. Instead, write lines that appeal to your ear and capture the pirate theme you have selected for your work.

Tips & Warnings

• For a greater challenge, try a more restrictive poetry style such as diamante, in which you create an adjective- and -ing-verb-rich poem that describes your subject and is shaped, as the name suggests, like a diamond. Or, for an uncommon juxtaposition, write a classic sonnet around a pirate theme, following the 14-rhymed line, iambic pentameter style popularized by William Shakespeare.

References

• readinga-z.com: Free-Verse Poem Lesson Plan

Resources

• Read, Write, Think: Diamante Poems
• ThinkQuest: Write a Sonnet