Writing Problems: Verbs

This post was suggested by Susan Aizenberg. If you have a suggestion for an essay, please let me know in the comments.

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It is often the choice of verbs that makes flat lines more energetic. Grammarians have special terms for kinds of verbs: auxiliary, deponent, desiderative, frequentative, and so on, but most verbs bring activity to the subjects in poems.

There are also intransitive verbs which don’t take direct objects, and what Mary Kinzie calls “non-verbs.” These deliberately flatten the line even when they become transitive and take on direct objects (such as grow or stand).

Kinzie’s list of weak or non-verbs:

But let’s look at active, dynamic verbs in a handful of poems.