Antonymic Translation: Poetic Forms
Poetic Form Fridays are made to share various poetic forms. This week, we look at antonymic translation, a very contrary form.
I found a mention of this week's poetic form, antonymic translation, hidden in the oulipo entry of John Drury's The Poetry Dictionary. Here are the guidelines for antonymic translation:
- Write a poem...
- ...then replace words in the original poem with antonyms to change the meaning
For my example attempt below, I started with my caveat poem from a week ago. Click here to read the original text.
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Play with poetic forms!
Poetic forms are fun poetic games, and this digital guide collects more than 100 poetic forms, including more established poetic forms (like sestinas and sonnets) and newer invented forms (like golden shovels and fibs).
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Here’s my attempt at an Antonymic Translation Poem:
“you can't look,” by Robert Lee Brewer
but do touch
& think
& talk
& feel
free to reveal
what you think
& wish to say
we'll x out the blanks
if you ignore
or mute what it means
when we analyze
the analytics
point by point
percentages
& clicks
with touching
thinking & feeling
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
