How to Write Onomatopoeia Poetry

Onomatopoeia poems are lots of fun and can be very creative. First, do you know how to pronounce this word? If you haven't heard this word before, look it up in the dictionary or wikipedia.

Onomatopeia poems use words that imitates the sound or feelings it represents. It brings out the feeling of how something looks or how something sounds. Let's look at the following sentences that describes a rainy day:

"The rain splattered" all over my windows. What picture forms in your mind when you see the word spattered? Does it make you feel the rain came down smoothly or did the rain come down in all directions? When I wrote this poem, I used the word splatter to show that when the rain landed on the window, it scattered its drops in different directions.

If I were to use the word splash instead of splatter, what feeling do you get this time? Think about it. splash gives you a different feeling than splatter. The rain splashed all over the window gives you the feeling that the rain came down quite hard when it hit the window and it spread water all over.

It squirted water in every direction. It gushed down the driveway and squashed my little kitten as the drops slid down the driveway. Notice that each of the words used here, gives you a certain feeling about the rain. This is what onomatopoeia poems try to do.

What comes to your mind when you hear the phase, "The rain squirted down the driveway? Think of a faucet when the water is coming through. When you put your fingers on the faucet, depending on hard you press on it, you can make the water come out in squirts.

Lets look at the first verse of this poem and see if you get the feeling of rain and how it is coming down.

The rain splattered over my windows
It splashed in every direction
It squirted like it came through a water gun

Now let's take a look at the word gush. This word denotes that the rain is coming down quite heavily. It came down quite heavily down the driveway. The word squash lets the reader know that it came down so hard that it squashed the cat.

Let's read the whole poem so that you can get the understanding of onomatopoeia poetry.

Notice that each of the words used here, gives you a certain feeling about the rain. This is what onomatopoeia poems try to do.

Here is another example of onomatopoeia poetry which uses words that express anger. Mr. Jones hissed at the growling salesperson. He was so angry he roared and growled for a half an hour.

Here is an example of two boys who were fighting: Max was so angry he roared and snapped his teeth at Paul. Their argument was so heated that Max banged Paul on the head. They whamed and whacked at each other for a long time.

Now let's see if you can make up a few sentences using words that express the following feelings: sadness, happiness, anger, surprise. For example for sadness, you could use such words as weep, sniffled, and whimpered, After you have made up your sentences, see if you can make up a little poem from any one of the words you used.