Graceful iambs with anapestic flourishes?

[icepixie]

Back 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

Comments

Re: Becc!!

[icepixie]

Yeah, I rather like having everyone's LJs on one page instead of having to go to each of y'all's individually.