Understanding that often all one needs is a spark to get the creative juices flowing, here’s an idea I came up with the other day having watched The Hollow Crown.
Take a phrase or part of a line from a different source (poem or play most likely) and then use that as the title for a poem. Think of it as a springboard. What you write does not need to be related in any way to the source material.
I’ve drawn-up a list of part-lines from Shakespeare as my triggers, and I offer the draft poem below as an example of the exercise:
Draw the curtain close
Muffle all harsh sounds, shut out the light;
disguise the bright of day and turn it into night.
Peel back the sheets and come lie with me;
enfold me in your arms and whisper dreamily.
Let these few hours free your troubled mind,
release your present fears, your many cares unwind;
and then, with conclusion of the dance,
rise, re-admit the light, enlivened by our trance.The source is Henry VI, Part 2, act 3, scene 3 — and has nothing to do with the subject matter of my poem (which, I confess, I’m not particularly fond of even thought I wrote it).
Here are a few more ideas:
banners flout the sky - Macbeth, act 1 scene2
the written troubles of the brain - Macbeth, act 5 scene 3
eternity was in our lips - Anthony and Cleopatra, act 1 scene3
there is nothing left remarkable - Anthony and Cleopatra, act 4 scene 13
life’s uncertain voyage - Timon of Athens, act 5 scene 1
Although a bit ‘old school’, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations is a great source of one-liners. Obviously you could use the quotes a prompts for fiction too. Half the fun is finding your jumping-off points!
If you give it a go, do let me know how you get on by posting a comment…
Great idea to use Bartlett’s!
Such an interesting and creative prompt. I will give it a try.