[HELP] Solution for trying to write a long narrative poem?

[u/ThePoetsPortrait]

As the title says I find myself struggling to write the poem in iambic pentameter, yet I am skilled enough in the formal form to just improvise a lyrical short poem with little guidance, just a theme and character. With this narrative poem I started by writing it as prose first. Doing this first step enables me to focus first on the narrative: potential plot holes, and issues with causality: potential issues with the timeline of events. But trying to translate the prose into formal poetry I have difficulty writing. Is this a common problem with poets of the past and now that tried to write narrative poems? Do you have any solutions to this issue?

[u/adjunct_trash]

The heart of the poetic tradition puts poetic composition above everything else. If you're starting by writing prose, you will have written prose and trying to translate it will be difficult. If you're going for unrhymed iambic pent--blank verse-- just read a ton of work done in that mode to try to make the rhythm intuitive.

I'd recommend Wordsworth's Prelude, which is after all fully titled, The Prelude or, Growth of a Poet's Mind; An Autobiographical Poem. He's writing the story of his life. I'd also recommend Schnackenberg's more lyric Heavenly Questions. Frost's great run of narrative poems would be good. I've never read the novel-in-verse by Vikrem Seth -- maybe it's called Golden Gate or some other SF reference-- but know it was written in some rigorous form.

Good luck.

[u/ThePoetsPortrait → u/adjunct_trash]

Thanks, reading your comment did give me a bit of conformation of what I felt to be the why. Why its hard to write—translation, and that I should have put poetic composition first. A potential solution I thought of and maybe if you think this will help while reading more works, is reading sections of my prose and putting it away, and using my retention to rewrite what I read. Do you this this is solution to add?