Many famous poets had a small ritual that got them writing: a pot of tea, a cigar, a long walk, a cat for company, or a place without distractions. Here are the habits of seven of them, so you can find the ritual that works for you.
Writing poetry is not that hard if you know how to set the stage. Here is how some of history's best-known poets did it.
There is always room for tea
Like the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland, Samuel Johnson loved his tea. He called himself "a hardened and shameless tea-drinker", and many of us coffee and tea lovers can relate. Johnson went on to say that he diluted his meals with tea, and that "with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnight, and with tea welcomes the morning." He is said to have drunk many cups a day.
Amy Lowell loved cigars
The Pulitzer Prize winner famously smoked cigars. She is said to have preferred them to cigarettes because they lasted much longer, so she could stay focused on what she was writing.
The Hoosier Poet
James Whitcomb Riley, known as the Hoosier Poet, had an unusual way to make himself write. The story goes that he would rent a hotel room and hand over his clothes before he began. To him, there was a perfectly good reason: without clothes, he could not slip away to the bar.
Edmond Rostand went a step further
Edmond Rostand, the French poet and playwright who wrote Cyrano de Bergerac, struggled with distractions so much that he is said to have retreated to the bathtub to write. There, at least, visitors left him in peace.
Get a cat
No, not to fill a hole in your poetic heart, but for company. Edgar Allan Poe had a tortoiseshell cat named Catterina, who is said to have sat on his shoulder while he wrote. She is often named as an inspiration for his short story The Black Cat (1843), even though she was not black at all.
Walk
William Wordsworth found that walking worked for him. He loved to set out on foot at any hour of the day to clear his head, and in 1790 he went on a walking tour through France and the Alps.
Your car is a workplace
Gertrude Stein used to sit in her parked car and write on scraps of paper, filling dozens of them inside its small, quiet space.
Find your own ritual
You don't need to smoke cigars or write in the bath. But a small habit that tells your mind it is time to write can help, whether it is a cup of tea, a walk, or a quiet corner. For more ideas, see how and where to find inspiration to write.
When your poem is finished, check it one last time for typos. The Spell Checker marks them, and you can simply ignore a suggestion where you broke a rule on purpose.