Exaggeration means claiming something is greater than it really is. For example, if you said "my cat is as big as a house" or "I can run faster than the speed of light," you would be exaggerating.
Exaggerating is a fun way to write imaginative poetry. When I exaggerate in a poem, I like to pick one characteristic of the thing I am writing about, and exaggerate it as wildly as I can. The crazier your exaggerations, the more exciting the poem is.
Let's say we want to write a poem about a spicy food. But let's exaggerate and make it the world's spiciest food. What kind of food might that be? How about the world's hottest hot pepper? What kinds of things would happen if you ate the world's hottest hot pepper? Would you breathe flames? Would your hair ignite? Would you drink a lot of water? Perhaps an entire lake? What else would happen? Let's start writing and find out.
From my brother on a dare.
And burned off all my hair.
And my tongue began to melt.
My ears were shooting jets of steam.
At least that's how they felt.
I ricocheted around the room.
I ran across the ceiling.
To relieve the burning feeling.
Of that spicy pepper's spice.
"That pepper was the best one yet.
Let's pick another topic. Let's say you want to write a poem about a computer. We could make it a slow computer or a fast computer. A large computer or a small computer, and so on. Why don't we make it not just a fast computer, but the fastest, biggest, smartest computer in the world. How big would it be? How much memory would it have? What sorts of things would it be able to do? Here's what I came up with.
that's the fastest ever seen.
and a forty-eight inch screen.
they carried at the store.
It can teach you how to mambo.
It can play the violin.
in a tournament of chess.
or build a time machine.
Pick something to write about.
Pick a feature or characteristic of the thing that you are writing about.
Exaggerate that characteristic in every way you can think of, making a list as you go.
Take your list of ideas and turn them into a poem.
When you write your exaggeration poem, it doesn't have to rhyme, unless you want I to.
If you can't think of a funny ending for your poem, try ending it with the same lines you used at the beginning of the poem.
If you have trouble thinking of something to write about, read Chapter 3 of How to Write Funny Poetry on this website for some ideas.
Good luck writing your own exaggeration poems!