July 2015 Challenge: The Imitation Game

[Angeline]

When I read well-written poems, as these two are from Edna St. Vincent Millay and Angeline,

http://forum.literotica.com/showpost.php?p=69700903&postcount=45

I like to pick out their unique feature(s). What was striking to me was the use of proper nouns in these. Having grown up there, I'm familiar with the Jersey Shore, and as a New Englander by choice for the last 40+ years, I'm familiar with Truro on the Cape. Both places conjure up enjoyable images.

Less familiar with Shillinstone Hill and Stinson Beach, I looked both up, and once I did, it added a whole new meaning to both poems. You may find your own, but for me it represented how what's here and now triggers a desire for something else, something more.

Thanks GM. I love the Millay poem and had been wondering how I would go at making it my own. Stinson Beach is just north of San Francisco, EE's hometown, and the original poem is elegiac to me, so that became the way into my inspiration. My world--the Jersey Shore is home even though I'm no longer there--and Stinson Beach, a world where maybe I'd find some bit of him again.

I apologize for not commenting on your and others' poems yet. I am battling some pretty ugly sciatica and my time at the keyboard is fairly limited right now. Also I'm kinda drugged...but I will get to it. There are a few poems from you, Tzara, and Tess I especially wanted to ask about.

 

[greenmountaineer]

Thanks GM. I love the Millay poem and had been wondering how I would go at making it my own. Stinson Beach is just north of San Francisco, EE's hometown, and the original poem is elegiac to me, so that became the way into my inspiration. My world--the Jersey Shore is home even though I'm no longer there--and Stinson Beach, a world where maybe I'd find some bit of him again.

I apologize for not commenting on your and others' poems yet. I am battling some pretty ugly sciatica and my time at the keyboard is fairly limited right now. Also I'm kinda drugged...but I will get to it. There are a few poems from you, Tzara, and Tess I especially wanted to ask about.

Ouch! No apology needed. I'm going through the list at my own pace too. Kudos to Tzara once again for the challenge and to his poetry prof. I think it's a very effective teaching technique.

 

[greenmountaineer]

I'm not pandering here when I write I like UYS's "In Solid Rows" better than McCrae's "In Flanders Fields." I'll state my reason shortly.

http://forum.literotica.com/showpost.php?p=68965955&postcount=7

I'm biased in favor of war poems, in particular, and even more so those about WW I. Robert Graves, Wilfred Owen, and the American, Issac Rosenberg, have written some first hand gut wrenching pieces.

Formal poetry has to be done well for me to enjoy it. These have been. The rhyme and meter of both get disrupted with "in Flanders Fields" and "In Solid Rows" rather suddenly with the starkest images of the poems. You can't help but dwell on them; very effective.

I liked the way UYS used the word "mow." Someone might say she used it just for the sake of rhyme because we're used to reading the verb, at least here in the U.S, perhaps not in Great Britain. However, it is a noun also. It didn't feel forced to me at all. It did make me stop momentarily and think about the word, rather than glance over it. Intentional or not, she employed a very effective poetic device IMO.

Lastly, I liked Annie's poem better because the last stanza I thought better expressed the horror of war, whereas McCrae's piece felt a little bit like a recruiting poster. Perhaps at the time patriotism was expressed more in this manner than today. However, there are a number of historians who have written WW I was very avoidable, except for the gains to be made by a few. If true, that so many young men died is truly horrific.

 

[Piscator]

Finally getting around to but still reading this challenge and am gobsmacked. Congrats all

 

[greenmountaineer]

Darwin ala Bradbury and Tess was a great starter to the Challenge:


http://forum.literotica.com/showpost.php?p=68947879&postcount=2

Bradbury had the advantage of looking back. Tess took us back aboard the Beagle with all its seasickness.

"Exotic wastes" in the Tess poem is a killer phrase, one where you say to yourself "Gee, maybe I can steal that for some future use."

Loved the dramatic flourish at the end of them both.