Is It Cheating to Use a Thesaurus?
Or should we use every useful aid available to us?
When I sit down to write a poem, I like to think that my mind is ready and able to supply every word I could potentially need. After all, writing a poem is an exercise in using the tools and skills acquired during a lifetime, not to mention a good, healthy dose of one’s creativity, memory, and passionate beliefs.
Sometimes, though, I simply cannot think of the exact word I want to use for a verse of poetry. The right word seems to dangle in front of me, just out of reach, behind a partial shadow cast by an overhanging branch at the water’s edge.
Quite frustrating, to say the very least!
I have found over the years that if I search a thesaurus for synonyms for the word I am currently dissatisfied with, I will be offered many choices, among which will be the exact word I had been hoping to find.
In pretty much every instance, the word I end up selecting from the thesaurus is one I was familiar with anyway. For me, the offerings in the thesaurus act as prompts to my overwrought brain, as if saying, “You already know this word. You just couldn’t recall it at the moment. Well, here it is. Use it!”
Armed with the word I had been anxiously seeking, a line of verse may suddenly…
