The Dos and Don’ts of Writing Your Own Love Poem

Writing a love poem is a timeless endeavour undertaken by many through the ages, and if you are ready to write your own, we have some essential tips for you. It takes a delicate blend of artistry and technical skill to ensure that your piece is heartfelt and captures the nuances of love without seeming insincere. Whatever your experiences with love, be it finding your kindred spirit in a partner or friend, basking in the affection of your family, or enduring lost love, you can use poetry to express it. These dos and don’ts aren’t rigid rules one must necessarily follow, but rather gentle prompts to help you navigate your writing with balance.

Embracing a Theme for Your Love Poem

Your theme is the golden thread that runs through every verse and ties it all up with a bow at the end. Poetry without a clear theme can feel scattered and inconsistent, and while this may be the point of some poems, writers usually seek harmony in their verses. When choosing a theme for writing a love poem, there are endless options, but it is essential that you infuse your poem with some subtle hints that point to a central topic. On the other hand, you don’t want to overdo the theme or hammer it into every verse, as this can distract from the piece’s flow. The subject matter should unfold organically without being too on-the-nose and literal.

Do: Select a meaningful theme and think of interesting ways to communicate it.
Don’t: Forcefully drive the theme and overstate its presence.

Harnessing Imagery and Symbolism

Without imagery and symbolism, poetry can feel lifeless. To give your work some colour and texture that draws the reader in, use your words to create vivid mental images and associations that enhance the poem’s meaning. Complex ideas can often be expressed through tangible objects, like clocks that denote time, for example. This also gives the poem aesthetic appeal, enhancing its richness and beauty and making it something people want to read repeatedly. These are potent tools when used with care, but their impact can be diminished when one leans on trite and overdone language in a love poem. Roses representing love or rainclouds that symbolise sadness, for example, won’t as strongly impact the reader because this imagery has been used so often.

• Do: Use clever, fresh imagery to evoke emotions.
• Don’t: Succumb to clichés and tired tropes that dull your poem.

Conveying Sincerity and Vulnerability

Raw, unfiltered expression is memorable because it differs from the generic words we often see splayed on retail Valentine’s Day cards and repeated in chart-topping love songs. A lot has been said about love throughout history, but that doesn’t mean you can’t think up something original, and it starts with your sincere feelings. Laying bare your soul upon the page and meaning every word is not easy, but it makes for a much more intriguing and complex love poem. There is also no need to cloak each verse in layers of artificial emotion and embellish it with melodrama. It’s enough to just say what you mean and mean what you say.

• Do: Speak from the heart with authenticity and genuine emotion.
• Don’t: Drown your love poem with exaggerated sentimentality.

Honouring Your Unique Voice

As a writer, your voice is your most essential asset, and it is informed by your identity, life experiences, values, hopes, fears, and dreams. Through this lens, your unique perspective on the world can shine, and you can unburden yourself of the expectations of others. Nobody can tell you how to write like yourself because nobody is quite like you. Once you realise how powerful your story is, your poetry will reflect intimate honesty. Inspiration can always be found in the phenomenal works of other artists like yourself, and their poetry can act as guideposts along the way, but it’s vital that you take the time to work on finding your own style and carve out your path.

• Do: Share your voice by injecting your writing with truth.
• Don’t: Mimic other writers. Rather trust your own journey and voice.

If you are new to writing and want to get a feel for this art form before starting your love poem, we have a library collection of poems in all 11 official languages. These competition entries break the boundaries and prove that there is a place for you and your expression, no matter your language or where you come from in South Africa.