The use of color in poetry has a long history: among other early poets, Virgil used over 500 color words in The Aeneid, and Shakespeare often used both colors and the word color to heighten linguistic drama.
Personal and cultural associations affect our experiences of color and, while perceptions of color are essentially subjective, there are color effects that have general meanings. For example, colors in the red section of the color spectrum are considered warm and include red, orange and yellow. Warm colors evoke emotions ranging from love, sincerity, and comfort to anger and hostility. Colors on the blue side of the spectrum are called cool colors and include blue, purple and green. Cool colors are often described as calm, but they are also related to feelings of sadness, loneliness, and indifference.
While “color poem” prompts are often used in classrooms with young students, color can enhance mature poetry as well (with the caveat not to overdo). Before writing, take a look at some examples of poetry in which colors are used. Notice how effective judicious use of color can be – only one or two color references can add much to a poem (less can be more). Consider the following examples:
For your color poem:
Begin by taking a “color inventory” of your life. What colors do you like to live with? If you had to live with a single color what would it be? What is your favorite color? What colors do you associate with the best or worst times of your life? What colors do you associate with people, places, experiences? Following are ten possibilities for color poems:
1. Write a poem about a color without naming the color and without using one of its synonyms (for example, don’t use “crimson” in place of “red” or “azure” in place of “blue”).
2. What color is your life? Write a poem about your life’s color(s).
3. Write about an experience using colors to set the “tone.”
4. Compare a relationship to a color.
5. Compare a person to a color.
6. Compare your job (or creative work) to a color.
7. What is your life’s “rainbow?”
8. Write a poem about a place (scene, landscape) and use colors to highlight descriptions and details.
9. Think about implied colors as in Wordsworth’s poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.” Wordsworth only mentions “golden” once, but the sense of “yellow” is strongly present throughout the poem. Try this in a poem of your own. Click Here to Read Wordsworth's Poem.
10. As an alternative to color, write a poem about something colorless.