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Taste, touch, sight, smell, and hearing.
Your five basic senses help you take in information from the world around you. These senses are also a powerful tool to use when you're writing. They help convey a message to readers by providing a strong image in their heads.
Tips to Use Your Five Senses When Writing Poetry
As you prepare to write, think about how your topic could be described using one, two, or all of your senses. You might want to write down each of the five senses and any words that describe your topic using those senses.
For example, let's say I'm writing about ice cream.
- Taste: smooth, cold, melt in your mouth, sweet
- Touch: Wet, cold, slimy, frozen
- Sight: mounds, white as snow (vanilla), little crevices, puddles (when it melts)
- Smell: sweet, minty (mint chocolate chip)
- Hearing: plop, splat (when it falls on the floor)
Once you've done some brainstorming, you're now able to think about adding those descriptors into your poem. Do you need to use all of them? Absolutely not. Only use the ones that best convey the message.
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