Poetry & wordplay21 categories
Mine a word for puns, doubles, and buried senses
Building a poem around a word that should be pulling double duty.
Take the word below apart for everything a poem could use. Give me: 1. **Senses**: every distinct meaning, including obsolete and technical ones, with the field each belongs to 2. **Etymology**: the root, and any earlier sense that still haunts the word 3. **Homophones and near-homophones**, marked by accent where it matters 4. **Idioms and set phrases** containing it, which can be broken open or taken literally 5. **Compounds and derived forms**, including ones that feel unlikely 6. **Collocations**: the words it usually sits beside, so I can avoid or subvert them Then suggest five ways a poem could make two senses active at once, each as a concrete phrase rather than a description of a technique. Word: Theme or context of the poem:
Making it yours
- Paste your own material where the prompt asks for it. Everything above that line is instruction, not content.
- Delete any rule that does not apply to you. A shorter prompt that fits beats a thorough one that does not.
- If the answer comes back vague, add a line saying what you do not want. Constraints work better than encouragement.
Getting a draft going. Forms, constraints, and raw material for when there is no poem on the page yet.
Related prompts
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