Graceful iambs with anapestic flourishes?
Apr. 1st, 2003 08:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieBack from the poetry reading thingy. All six of us student winners got introduced by one of the three English department faculty members who were reading after us. These introductions were seriously complex, and full of English criticism-ese. My poem was introduced as a response to the seminal figures of English-langauge poetry, with a narrator who sings a song in graceful iambs with anapestic flourishes, among other things. Um. I just wrote this to sound pretty...
Here. Does this look iambic with anapestic flourishes? I vaguely remember that those terms have something to do with syllables (five and three, right?), but I was writing this as free verse when I wrote it...
The Cat Who Danced with the Moon
"Do you dance, Minnaloushe, do you dance?"
-- W. B. Yeats, "The Cat and the Moon"
I dance, Mr. Yeats, I dance with the moon
as she twirls across the sky.
From dusk to dawn, I am a wild creature,
knowing no warm fire, no saucers of milk,
no human companionship. The fields
are my home, mouse blood my wine,
the light of the moon my burning candle.
I blend blackly into the night, silvered
only by the touch of my partner,
the moon. My glinting eyes
hold her shape in yellow curves,
and her gravity pulls both the ocean and me
away from the lights and lives of men.
You see me, Mr. Yeats, because you know
the moon and her powers. You know why
my eyes and hers change so,
without smoke or mirrors, but
with shadow and substance.
Yes, Mr. Yeats, I dance with the moon.
One night you too will join us
in our fey circle and dance with your pen
all the phases of the moon.
Don't get me wrong; it was a lovely introduction, and I'm very appreciative of it. Just surprised, that's all. 'Twas a lovely reception and reading, too. I quite like the Peirce lounge. Lots of cushy couches! :-)
- Becca
Here. Does this look iambic with anapestic flourishes? I vaguely remember that those terms have something to do with syllables (five and three, right?), but I was writing this as free verse when I wrote it...
The Cat Who Danced with the Moon
"Do you dance, Minnaloushe, do you dance?"
-- W. B. Yeats, "The Cat and the Moon"
I dance, Mr. Yeats, I dance with the moon
as she twirls across the sky.
From dusk to dawn, I am a wild creature,
knowing no warm fire, no saucers of milk,
no human companionship. The fields
are my home, mouse blood my wine,
the light of the moon my burning candle.
I blend blackly into the night, silvered
only by the touch of my partner,
the moon. My glinting eyes
hold her shape in yellow curves,
and her gravity pulls both the ocean and me
away from the lights and lives of men.
You see me, Mr. Yeats, because you know
the moon and her powers. You know why
my eyes and hers change so,
without smoke or mirrors, but
with shadow and substance.
Yes, Mr. Yeats, I dance with the moon.
One night you too will join us
in our fey circle and dance with your pen
all the phases of the moon.
Don't get me wrong; it was a lovely introduction, and I'm very appreciative of it. Just surprised, that's all. 'Twas a lovely reception and reading, too. I quite like the Peirce lounge. Lots of cushy couches! :-)
- Becca
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Becc!!
Date: 2003-04-01 08:49 pm (UTC)I was just wondering the other day that you were one person I wish that had an LJ... cause that way I could add you to the friends list and be my lazy self and read it all on one page... :)
love you!!
Re: Becc!!
Date: 2003-04-09 10:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-04-02 12:23 am (UTC)It's damned pretty though! *is in such incredible awe over her twin's talent*
This is the poem that they put to music on your birthday, yeah? It's very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, VERY DAMN GOOD. *G*
Love ya,
Kimberley
no subject
Date: 2003-04-09 10:08 am (UTC)*looks downward* Thanks again to Kate, too.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-02 11:25 am (UTC)<snerk>
I know very little about poetry so I have no idea if it's what they said it was, but it is pretty. Congratulations!