Let the horses run

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His chesnut frame
is in stark comparison to
the excess mud which
they storm across.

They are now understand
the gun fire which
aims for the legs,
which hopes to hurt them.

Lifeless skies sore above,
as Selma whinnes and tries to
run; a thought shared by many.

They stare into death,
they can not control it.
They had no choice;
they were sold.

Wesley, he stares at
the enemy. His owner,
his oldest friend hold him
tightly.

His owner whispers
happy memories,
he is escaping for a split second;
until the general blows his whistle,
the sound screaming louding than the
machine gun fire.
It yells and everyone knows their fate,
what's awaiting them on no-mans land.
He screams the order;

Let the horses run.
'I have loved to the point of madness, which for me is the only true way to love'
~Francoise Sagan




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AAAH. I'd written a big ol' review, and my computer killed it.

Okay, well I went through stanza by stanza, and said essentially the same thing. And, because I'm heading out soon, I'm going to paraphrase, while getting everything I wanted down. :)
You have some really strong emotions and concepts, but some of your phrases are a little awkward, or could be restructured/reworded in order to convey more depth.

His chesnut frame
is in stark comparison to
the excess mud which
they storm across.

You have this phrased a little bit awkwardly, and passively. I think that the "is in" really contributes to this. Also, you might consider using a metaphor of some sort to describe the mud. Maybe an ocean or something. I dunno. I'm sure you could come up with better. :)

They are now understand maybe take out "are now?
the gun fire which
aims for the legs, Maybe change "which aims" to "aimed"?
which hopes to hurt them.

I like that you personified the gunfire, but I think that you could take it a step further by giving them either entire malicious intent and describing their want for blood and destruction, or perhaps lessening their attitudes to that of reluctant tools, who are hurt in the battle as well.

Lifeless skies sore above,
as Selma whinnes and tries to
run; a thought shared by many.

"Lifeless" feels a little redundant to me, as does "soar". How do skies soar, when they're already there without having to fly? Also, the last clause in the stanza feels too passive to me again. I think that maybe you could incorporate some more figurative language: maybe compare the mare's yearning to fly with the soaring clouds overhead? Something like that.

They stare into death,
they can not control it.
They had no choice;
they were sold.

I really like the first and last lines of this stanza, but I feel like the in-between needs a bit more intensifying. Make it painful, the incapability to flee from their deaths. Also, I would change the way you have "they" at the beginning of each lines. This gives a feeling of uniformity, when you want to create a tone of discord to match the imagery.

Wesley, he stares at Remove ", he"
the enemy. His owner,
his oldest friend hold him
tightly.

This kind of confused me at first; I thought that the enemy and his owner were the same person, only to realize afterwards that they weren't. I'd clarify. Also, in the last stanza, you portrayed the horses as slaves, and now you show them as old friends. Maybe have the horse wonder why his old friend would put him through this?

His owner whispers make this one line
happy memories,
he is escaping for a split second; make "is escaping" "escapes"
until the general blows his whistle,
the sound screaming louding than the
machine gun fire.
It yells and everyone knows their fate,
what's awaiting them on no-mans land.
He screams the order;

Let the horses run.


So, great ending. I love the emotion and the concepts and everything. I would think about removing one of the screams from this line, probably "the sound screaming" and change it to something else. Great vocabulary in this stanza though.

Overall, great job. I've thought about this subject before (how many horses were sacrificed for our wars), and I thought it was powerful. I'd watch out for writing passively, and would maybe incorporate some more figurative language, but great job. :)

-Coral-




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Hey disco! :D

Okay, so the typos are absolutely killlllling your poem. So you need to take them out! And you also love to use pronouns, but you don't introduce in context what those pronouns mean, so it's ridiculously confusing! Plus, you introduce all these proper nouns, but don't actually describe what they stand for or put it in any meaningful context. So introduce your ideas and key players better! Your poem doesn't really make any sense because of that. And then you put random semicolons everywhere...

I don't know! It looks really really sloppily done. So you need to clean it up a bit, clear away all the typos, the bad grammar, and the weird punctuation. Plus, you need to stop being so vague! The vagueness is killing your metaphor!
Look at it:

His chesnut frame <-- chestnut, not chesnut
is in stark comparison to
the excess mud which
they storm across.<-- You said "his chestnut frame" and then talk about "they"? Who is they? Need to explain this!

They are now understand <-- No "are"
the gun fire which <-- gunfire is generally one word
aims for the legs,<-- instead of "the" I think "their" would be better
which hopes to hurt them. <-- hopes is such a weak word right here! Get some better imagery.

Lifeless skies sore above, <-- "soar", not "sore." Different words. Also, what makes the skies lifeless? Describe!
as Selma whinnes and tries to <-- "whinnies" not "whinnes"
run; a thought shared by many. <-- what thought is shared?

They stare into death, <-- who is they again? Soldiers? Horses? Humanity? You might be going for the vague intentionally so you can apply it to the whole of the universe, but you're only killing your metaphor so that it becomes meaningless.
they can not control it. <-- control what?
They had no choice; <-- the choice to die? What are you talking about?
they were sold. <-- The horses?

Wesley, he stares at <-- Who is Wesley?
the enemy. His owner,
his oldest friend hold him <-- "holds" not "hold"
tightly. <-- In what way? There are many ways to hold a horse... legs wrapped around, clinging to the mane, etc.

His owner whispers
happy memories, <-- To a horse? Why?
he is escaping for a split second; <-- Uh... why the semicolon?
until the general blows his whistle,
the sound screaming louding than the <-- This makes no sense. Louder, possibly?
machine gun fire.
It yells and everyone knows their fate, <-- What yells?
what's awaiting them on no-mans land. <-- No-man's, with the apostrophe.
He screams the order; <-- Uh... why the semicolon?

Let the horses run. <-- This would be better if the rest of the poem was more solid.

So yeah! Definitely clean up this poem. It's an easy fix in general... I think the poem will probably be really good once it makes sense. You just need to clear up all the things that is making this poem vague and sloppy!
Ubi caritas est vera, Deus ibi est.

"The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls the butterfly." ~ Richard Bach

Moth and Myth <- My comic! :D



You are all the colours in one, at full brightness.
— Jennifer Niven, 'All the Bright Places'