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Ideas for Color Poems

Color is everywhere, but often people are too busy to notice its vibrancy or paleness. Poetry forces a writer to slow down and express emotions through words. Writing poems about color will open your eyes to the world around you and create an opportunity to put emotion and symbolism into the colors seen. Before writing a poem about color, make a list of colors and think about the significance of each.
  1. Five Senses

    • A grocery store may help your creativity flow.

      Describe the color you choose, using all five senses--sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. Ask questions: What would the color red taste like? How would green feel if you could touch it? What does yellow smell like? Think of foods, objects, nature and living creatures to include in your poem. For example, a daffodil, a duck's beak, a lemon and the sun might represent the color yellow. Expand the poem to include your emotions and memories.

    Personification

    • What emotion would you give this red spiral?

      Personification gives the attribution of character to inanimate objects. Think of colors as live creatures with feelings and opinions. You might ponder how many friends the color yellow would have, whether or not blue is calm or lonely or the misunderstood intentions of red. Create life scenarios for the color you choose. Perhaps blue doesn't want to landscape the sky anymore. Yellow may have dreams of traveling to the deepest depths of the ocean. White may want to tan on the beach without getting a sunburn.

    Synonyms

    • Think of scenarios where color transforms into another.

      Colors have many variations of hues, pigments and saturation. Coral looks very different than Bittersweet, but they are both derivatives of the color orange. Look up synonyms to colors, and write a poem using some or all of them. Thoughts to ponder include how the synonyms change the feeling and vibrancy of the color. A poem may start with a calming sage, morphing through changes until it reaches sparkling emerald. You may also choose one color, using synonyms that will morph it into an entirely different color. For example, red may transform to raspberry, which may in turn transform to violet.

    Symbolism

    • Green has become the symbol of environmentalism.

      Colors hold symbolism, especially in literature. In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death," each room is a different color, symbolizing the different stages of life. A color poem may be written entirely on the different symbols a color represents--Yellow represents friendship, happiness and cowardice. For symbolic color poems, choose just one color or several to represent different emotions or themes.

Poetry

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