Comments : On Sodden Ground

  • 11 years ago

    by Omar

    Nice poem. Keep it up

  • 11 years ago

    by nouriguess

    Nova!

    How I missed your poetry. Such a relief when I check your profile and find that you wrote something. I am so excited.

    I have been feeling so much like this lately and I am hating it. :( Even before I read, I noticed your title and felt how unstable you feel. Your title reminds me of quicksand and unstability, so it is so much connected with your words!

    Sometimes, I want to ask if it is too wrong to feel jealous. Lol. I believe it's that kind of jealousy that is so pure and never hurt anybody...I like how you likened it to a parasol. A parasol is meant to be soft.

    'we meet somewhere
    in the middle,
    I somehow end up drenched'

    What a way to end this! It broke my heart, Novalyn. :( I love the insertion of 'somehow', added to the meaning. Makes me feel how unsure you are.

    Loved this!

  • 11 years ago

    by The Prince

    So, my interpretation of this poem, which I thought to be the most interesting out of the three you submitted:

    'jealousy hovers like a parasol'

    I think 'hovers' is an interesting verb because it suggests a casualness, rather than 'droop' or 'hangs' which would denote a much more poignant feeling. This to me, reads as if the narrator is used to the jealousy being there. The next line you use 'syllables' which could mean speech, writing, thoughts, anything, so I wasn't particularly sure what it was but that the words deceive you. My image is that the jealousy is protecting you from the ruse of syllables? Or jealousy is the cause of it? Anyway, there is such a calmness mixed with sadness in these opening lines.

    'deflecting light back on to the face
    of the only one you seem to see.'

    This is kind of heartbreaking. Deflecting light, as in, the narrator feels that all they are doing is just making the other person stand out. The one the subject in this poem sees. 'seem to see' would also suggest a pretense from this subject, as in the narrator/persona feels like the subject is looking right through her, or looking to her, only to lose focus on the other girl with the 'sweet blushing cheeks'

    I get a sense of bitterness and anger here. The 'oh' sounded very sarcastic and cynical when I read it. I'm not sure it was meant to.

    You end up 'drenched' in his words at the end, which is a very poignant image. Seems like the narrator is trudging through his words all of the time. 'holes in my apathy' was great too, because it's another way of saying 'I cannot be indifferent' and it also goes with the water image, like how a seive would sink in water.

    Only criticism I do have was that 'her cheeks, oh that sweet blushing hue,'

    was a bit distracting. I mean, only because the rest of the poem is filled with such powerful imagery, that they undermined this above line a bit.

    Not a huge problem though!