2010 Team Poetry Olympiad Extravaganza

[butters]

bflaggst -oopsie. yes, i forgot to thank you too! {hugs+ }

hope that's not considered any sort of butteryness upping the judge, after Tristesse sent roses *hmmmm* lol

 

[annaswirls]

I hereby swear I will never again participate in a transatlantic challenge, it's just too stressful sitting here on the edge of the world.....

you just need to do more naked yoga

 

[Tzara]

This was interesting and kinda fun, in a nerve-wracking sort of way.

Thanks to Captain Awesome and my fellow teammates for making it a pretty awesome experience, and to Quizmaster bflagsst for setting it up.

Congratulations to Our Worthy Opponents, who were, well, worthy.

 

[Epmd607]

I haven't written a poem since the 19th century pretty much, it interested me in writing more poems. I'm glad everyone participated, just putting it together seemed an insurmountable task. Thanks to Jacuzzi_handjob, Bflagsst, and my teammates. I don't want to thank the other team's members yet because I don't know if they beat us or not.

Speaking of decisions, could some more people not involved in the contest please read our poems and give an opinion? On Wednesday I probably spent eight hours just thinking about the contest, following emails and all that. It would be sexy if someone read this sentence and then went and read the poems and gave an opinion. Will there be a final judgment read tonight?

 

[UnderYourSpell]

who the fumf is jacuzzi handjob?

I would like to thank my team captain who did a fabulous job even when I swore twice in the War Room and to my team mates especially Tess who slaved to bring everything together while I was sleeping and having poetic nighmares. I also thank Bflagg but don't you ever do it again at least not in my direction my nerves are now shredded. Actually I thank Chip too for raising a laugh with banter on this thread and others

 

[Epmd607]

who the fumf is jacuzzi handjob?

I saw that name in the birthday list yesterday, they posted once in 2001 I think. They gave me the inspiration I needed to complete the poetry task.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I saw that name in the birthday list yesterday, they posted once in 2001 I think. They gave me the inspiration I needed to complete the poetry task.

which does make one wonder where your head is at ........

 

[Epmd607]

which does make one wonder where your head is at ........

Up my wife's arse. Wah wah waaaah!

 

[butters]

*sniggers*

 

[bflagsst]

Okay, cool. I'll leave this open in case we get more folks who want to read and comment on the poems. Tomorrow I'll give my analysis and call someone a winner of Team Poetry Olympiad Extravaganza.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Up my wife's arse. Wah wah waaaah!

alllllll of it?!

 

[annaswirls]

I'm tellin' ya, if you want people to come read the poems, you have to start a new thread. A clean thread designed just for the commenting on the poems. People do not like to have to dig. Threads with many pages are intimidating.

Make a new thread with a sexy title. Put only the two poems and an invitation to come and comment. I am a bossy little sproket, aren't?

:remember when I called that super-prolific guy who did the Survivor poetry thing "dude" and he scolded me? I swear, I still don't say dude without getting a shiver.:

 

[annaswirls]

alllllll of it?!

just the head, pay attention

 

[UnderYourSpell]

just the head, pay attention

well that just proves I'm an innocent on here I never even thought of any other head than the one on the top of his body ....... I was going to say the one with the bran in but with men that would be the other one

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I'm tellin' ya, if you want people to come read the poems, you have to start a new thread. A clean thread designed just for the commenting on the poems. People do not like to have to dig. Threads with many pages are intimidating.

Make a new thread with a sexy title. Put only the two poems and an invitation to come and comment. I am a bossy little sproket, aren't?

:remember when I called that super-prolific guy who did the Survivor poetry thing "dude" and he scolded me? I swear, I still don't say dude without getting a shiver.:

LOL He's done that good title to the thread too didn't like to say so in the thread incase I got yelled at for messing up his voting stuff

 

[Lauren Hynde]

As Anna said (twice ), the poems need to be put in a new thread, otherwise no one will see them and comment. After the monumental task all participants faced, that would be very frustrating, I think.

Both teams definitely rose to the challenge and deserve a lot of credit for that. I wouldn't want to be the one deciding which one is the winner. The story seems to be better developed in Exhibit A, and I can see the Narcissus and Echo myths there much more clearly. Exhibit B takes a more subtle approach, and has some very elegant and memorable lines. Both teams have some issues with rhyme, but the final results are fairly unified overall, and both flow well, with an exception or two for each side. I really enjoyed Exhibit A's use of anadromes in the non-rhyming lines. A couple of them are a bit prosaic and in your face, but the concept is very interesting when you consider the myths. Given the time constraints, I'm impressed.

 

[bflagsst]

Since contests can't go on forever, I guess I'll give my opinion on each group of poems. New opinions may still be offered on the AnnaSwirls thread, but I'd just like to give mine and be done with my part.

Rules and prosody:

Both teams reference the myth in each poem and give a male and female perspective, meeting the criteria for the death and afterlife aspect of each perspective. Both teams have sufficient true rhymes in the first poem but neither entirely met the half-rhyme criteria for the second poem. Fair and Fear interests me as an imperfect rhyme, entirely acceptable, but blinded, mind, hubris and debris I can't think of a way they would be half-rhymes of -ear in Charley's team's poem. EPMD's team has at least one instance that I don't agree with as a half-rhyme. So I give the slight advantage in rule following to EPMD's team.

Content:

The poems are about giving a personal perspective, Charley's team went with third-person. I'd say that was a risk, it's not the easiest thing trying to describe a personal singular masculine or feminine perspective in third-person. EPMD's team went with what I expected, the first-person narrative, with some sort of throwback narrative interjection in the middle of each poem. So both teams took risks with the form. It takes an especially skilled poet to give depth of character to a 'he' and 'she', and I felt that Charley's team's voicing was a little flatter than I would have liked; a little too traditional sounding whereas EPMD's team is fairly contemporary sounding with that odd retro interjection mid-poem.

I think I hinted heavily that one poem should be voiced masculine and the other feminine, maybe I wasn't specific enough. I kind of wanted to get the men to try writing from a female perspective and the women from the male perspective. Neither team especially hit that mark for me, there's hints of the female in EPMD's team's Echo poem, but I'd imagine that those hints are from the pens of the females. So no one gets extra points for the gender perspective.

Charley's Team:

The first few stanza's are sort of a slow start for me, but the last few are strong, specifically the third and fourth, excellently written. The Echo poem starts strong, passing over the missing half-rhymes, but fades quickly once I hit 'eponym'. I thought I knew what it meant, I even looked it up, but I don't know that it fits with the sounds or with the context. The dialogue fits with the myth well, but I don't think any of the dialogue bits were especially creative. I was hoping one of the teams would use a call and response between poems.

EPMD's Team:

I don't think this poem starts strong either, neither team has that undeniable first line that shouts that they are going to win this thing. I really appreciate the italicized other voice mid-poem, in Narcissus it's done expertly and it's not superfluous at all. I know EroticOrogeny wrote the fourth stanza, his technique is patented by now, and that's where the poem gets really strange and creative for me. I really enjoy the sounds in the last two stanzas and I think I can actually follow the storyline. So congrats to whoever wrote the last stanza, because they could of easily left EO hanging out to dry, but they continued his program and made the entire poem work as far as I'm concerned.

I can't find EO in the second poem, if one of these four poems was written by one hand I'd guess this one. This poem begins much stronger than the last, excellent sounds throughout. However, the odd interjection seems a little less tidy in this poem, I feel like I have to work to find the rhythm whereas the interjection in the first poem had excellent rhythm. The fourth stanza is appreciated, we have dialogue from the myth, this and the last stanza work well together as I think the first and second work well together. The last stanza is well executed, a solid ending to the second team's entry. I read all four poems in different orders so I wouldn't be biased by the last stanza I read. You can get tricked sometimes into thinking a poem's fantastic by a solid sing-songy ending.

And the Winner is:

That traditional voicing in the middle of the poem was a good idea for EPMD's team, the first two people don't necessarily have to worry about what the last two people are doing and vice versa. Both teams wrote coherent poems, there's no stanza that sticks out as misfit. Both teams did a commendable job. It's one thing writing a call and response set of poems with someone, something entirely different to be responsible for one of five stanzas with four other people looking over your shoulder. I think EPMD's team has the better set of poems. The third-person narrative might be what really tipped the program and forced that more traditional voicing for Charley's team. But aside from that I think they made too many easy word choices within their lines. So congrats to both teams for writing poems that I enjoyed reading and analyzing. I'm actually interested in who wrote what? Could someone or some of you give me a rundown of what happened for each team? Maybe spill a little of the creative process for my benefit? Thanks.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

*Holds hand up and confesses to the 'eponym'*

 

[butters]

EPMD's team order:

poem 1
EPMD
Butty
Tzara
EO
Anna

Poem2:
Anna
EO
Tzara
Butty
EPMD

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Charley's Team

Tess
Remec
UYS
Charley
Bron

for both poems

 

[butters]

I think if any one of us had had free reign to edit entire poems, we'd all have been tempted to write something less true to the original poets' intentions, and we each would have come up with entirely different whole poems. Getting as far as we did, either team, was an achievement in itself. Thanks, Bflagg for your input, and commiserations to the opposition

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I think if any one of us had had free reign to edit entire poems, we'd all have been tempted to write something less true to the original poets' intentions, and we each would have come up with entirely different whole poems. Getting as far as we did, either team, was an achievement in itself. Thanks, Bflagg for your input, and commiserations to the opposition

Thankyou ....... you're buying.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Oooops forgot to say well done!!

 

[butters]

Thankyou ....... you're buying.

what's your poison, shweethart?

Oooops forgot to say well done!!

ta

 

[UnderYourSpell]

what's your poison, shweethart?


ta

Well actually I'll have a schooner of sherry if it's all the same with you