Welcome! I’m participating in the #BlogchatterA2Z challenge where I’ll share 26 posts on the theme “The Poet’s Alphabet: 26 Secrets for Crafting Beautiful Poetry”. In each post, I’ll offer bite-sized tips and tricks for crafting and perfectly editing poetry. Today’s tip is:

Observe the World Around You and Use Sensory Details To Bring It to Life in Your Poems

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Great poetry often draws on sensory details to create a sense of place and atmosphere. By using vivid and specific details that appeal to the senses (such as sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell), you can help your readers imagine the world of your poem. So, it’s important to keenly observe the world around you and use sensory details to bring it to life in your poems.

Sarojini Naidu’s poem “In the Bazaars of Hyderabad” is an excellent example of how keen her observation was and how sensory details can be used to bring a poem to life and create a sense of place and atmosphere. The poem is set in a bustling marketplace in Hyderabad, India, and Naidu uses a range of sensory details to capture the sights, sounds and smells of this vibrant space.

"Scents of sandal and myrrh,
Delicate jasmine and spice,
Odors that burden the air,
These are the smells of the bazaar."

-An excerpt from the poem "In the Bazaars of Hyderabad"

Through the above stanza, Naidu uses scent to evoke the richness and diversity of the bazaar. The use of words like “delicate” and “burden” suggests the power and intensity of the smells, while the variety of scents listed suggests a range of goods and experiences on offer in the bazaar.

Hope you found this tip useful.

See you with another tip, tomorrow.

This post is a part of the #BlogchatterA2Z 2023 challenge.

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