What Makes a Good Poem? Creative Writing Lesson Plan

Recommended Reading: Writing Poetry from the Inside Out: Finding Your Voice Through the Craft of Poetry, by Sandford Lyne

As we begin to look at our poems in more depth, here are some of the rubrics and ideas we will be using:
What makes a good poem? – Short Poems
What is Good Poetry (What Makes Good Poetry)? – PoetrySoup
What Makes a Good Poem? – Marilyn Singer
How to Critique Poetry: 9 Steps – wikiHow
How to Critique a Poem | eHow
and  How to critique a poem | ebooks4writers
Further, here are some thoughts from: Telling a Good Poem from a Bad One – Daily Writing Tips:

What makes a poem “good”?

The answer ultimately lies with the reader of the poem, but there is a certain consensus as to what makes a poem “good” or “bad.”
According to the critic Coleridge, prose is “words in their best order,” while poetry is “the best words in their best order.

Poetry demands precision. The novelist can get away with less than precise expression from time to time because the story will pull the reader along. The job of the poet is to create a picture in the mind and an emotion in the heart. Every single word counts. The wrong choice–a word with the wrong connotation or the wrong number of syllables or an unlovely combination of consonant sounds–spoils all.
The underlying thought of the poem is also important. Some poems are written to create a picture only, but the most memorable poems also convey a universal truth about the human condition. For me, a “good” poem leaves me with goosebumps along my arms. I think a poem is “bad” when it lacks a discernible point and sounds like prose.

In Writing Poetry from the Inside Out: Finding Your Voice Through the Craft of Poetry, poet and national poetry workshop leader, Sandford Lyne, offers the writing exercises, guidance, and encouragement you need to find the poet inside you. Lyne’s techniques, which he developed through twenty years of teaching poetry workshops, flow from an understanding that poetry is an art form open to everyone. We all can-and should-write poetry.

In this enchanting and inspiring volume, Lyne will introduce you to the pleasures and surprises of writing poetry, and his methods and insights will help you tap into your own unique voice and perspective to compose poems of your own in as little as a few minutes.

Whether you are an experienced writer looking for new techniques and sources of inspiration or a novice poet who has never written a poem in your life, Writing Poetry from the Inside Out will help you to craft the poems you’ve always longed to write.