Tips for Writing Cento Poems

The term cento alludes to a remarkable form of experimental writing that has been around since around the third or fourth century, which is the point at which a poet creates another poem dependent on the acquired expressions of others. An appropriately refered to cento can be a great exercise or an approach to exhibit a considerable lot of crafted by prominent distributed poets.

A cento poem is a work of poetry that is made out of different lines taken from various poems. “Cento” is gotten from a Latin word signifying “interwoven article of clothing”— and a cento poem is only that—interwoven poetry (otherwise called a ‘composition poem’). With cento poems, an essayist can honor another poet, or use lines from another work for parody purposes.

At the point when you compose a cento poem, you repurpose lines from distributed poems to make another poetic form—discovered poetry. Lines can be taken from a solitary poet, or a few. In case you’re hoping to check the cento out, the accompanying advances can kick you off:

Read a great deal of poetry. The more poetry you have as a top priority to source lines from, the better. Reading up on a lot of writers gives you a greater pool of substance to look over when writing and organizing your cento.

Equilibrium the acquired content. Pick one to two lines of poetry for every chose poem (yet not normally multiple lines from each). You can do this by picking text aimlessly, or drawing your top choices from exemplary writings. Rebuild, reconfigure, and remix the request for your picked lines—you can rhyme in the event that you might want, yet it isn’t needed.

Match tenses and POV. Getting lines is certifiably not an out of control situation. On the off chance that you pick a first-individual point of view, keep all the lines in the primary individual. A similar standard applies to tenses. In the event that your cento starts in the past tense, keep it in the past tense. Study point of view in our total guide here.

Refer to your sources. At the point when you compose a cento, it is imperative to take note of whose poetry you have taken to remember for your own. A cento doesn’t mean you are making distributed work look like your own unique creation. A works referred to segment tells the reader you are crediting the writers, just as which different poems they can read should they be keen on researching the source further.