How to Write a Poem About Yourself in 3 Steps
Written by MasterClass
Last updated: Nov 14, 2022 • 2 min read
Poetry writing is one of the oldest forms of art in the world, and you don’t need a creative writing degree to participate. There are all kinds of genres, subgenres, styles, traditions, and schools of poetry. As a beginner, you may find the innumerable options daunting, but you can start with a subject you know better than anyone else: yourself. Learn how to write a poem about yourself in a few steps.
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How to Write a Poem About Yourself
Follow this step-by-step prompt to write a poem about yourself:
- Begin freewriting. Before selecting a poetic form, rhyme scheme, and literary devices for your own poem, try starting with a warm-up writing exercise. Open your journal or word processor, and jot down thoughts related to your topic—in this case, yourself and your own life. Small writing prompts can help focus your brainstorming session: What are details about yourself you have noticed during this time of reflection? How do you feel? What thoughts float across your mind, and what do they say about you? What are some of your favorite things or memories? What or who do you love? What are you afraid of? Remember that your answers to these questions aren’t the first lines of a free verse poem just yet (though you might use some of what you’ve written later), so don’t worry about word choice.
- Assemble, omit, and add. After you freewrite and have notes related to yourself, examine the material you have. Be playful and experimental, and allow your creativity to take over. Add line breaks and play with rhyme. Think about the poem sound and the ideas that come together. Remove clichés—overly familiar phrases—to take your poem in surprising directions.
- Take some time away, then repeat. The first draft of your poem rarely becomes your final product. Allow yourself distance from the draft to see it again with new eyes. Maybe you will realize you could expand it into a short story or prose poem. Since the poem is about you, take time to remember other sides of yourself or see how you write about yourself on a different day.
3 Tips for Writing a Poem About Yourself
Explore different ways to get new ideas for writing poetry about yourself:
- 1. Gather new words. Allow compelling words to lead your thoughts. Use a thesaurus or rhyming dictionary to collect new words that remind you of personal memories of your traits.
- 2. Try a poetic form. Poetic forms provide a structure that can come in handy when writing your poem. For a type of poem with a limited length, try a haiku, a villanelle, or a sonnet.
- 3. Use literary devices. Style is part of the fun when writing about yourself. Try to pick one literary device to work into your draft to see how it affects the language. For example, try using a simile. Similes describe one thing as being like a completely different thing. Write a completely random simile, then read over it to see how it sounds. “I am like a melting castle” might sound strange at first, but you may feel there’s a kernel of truth that leads you to your next lines. When you run out of ideas, try a new random simile.
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