z

Young Writers Society


12+

Pathos

by Sinaryn


Ahh, so delicately we flutter

Into the night

We are weak as we come

And even weaker as we go.

And yet we never go quietly

Even in our darkest moments

We find the strength to lift our wings

Though in the end all wings will crumble.

Though some of us crash to the ground

Before our time,

There will be others

Who lift us into the sky

And who know that they must let us go.

But they lift us and let us see

The shining sunrise

And we set our course for

Half past sunset

The ephemeral breeze takes us

And we know

That our lives are no less fleeting than the wind.

Though our song may be lost to time itself,

That serene desire we have to survive

Carries our spirits

Atop the ocean waves.

And we set our course

For half past sunset

Though we cannot bear to be forgotten.

We are one last furious flame

Before we give ourselves

To the night.


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417 Reviews


Points: 500
Reviews: 417

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Sun Jan 26, 2014 5:32 am
Willard wrote a review...



Strange here, and I have a review for you on this fabulous review day!
Quick side note, I know nothing about the TA being shot. I'm not the world's biggest guy when it comes to news. If you go to Purdue, or even knew the person, I'm truly sorry.
This poem made me speechless. It's so emotional. I can feel the pool of your heart that was poured into this. The way it's orchestrated, the way it captures beauty, and the way you can remember the TA. The message is beautiful. Great job. Magnificent
Overall, I'm speechless
Strange gives you..
An off the chart.
Great job
Keep writing
Stay groovy, my friend *hair flips*




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806 Reviews


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Reviews: 806

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Thu Jan 23, 2014 8:04 pm
Aley wrote a review...



This poem has really good wording. I think you work very well within the metaphor you picked and that is a huge plus for what you're trying to do. The problem I see is a little different form what Milanimo saw. I don't think separating out this poem into stanzas is really going to help the reader, I think what will help is if you add more punctuation and eliminate some of the words that are fruitless, such as "though" and "and" as well as adding punctuation.

The problem I'm finding is that you don't give us enough time to really pause and admire things before dragging us on. Also some of the thoughts are half finished when you break them into the next line.

I'll go through first and mark useless words. This review ended up really long so I'm going to imbed things in spoilers so you can look at each section individually.

Spoiler! :
Ln 5- And yet
7- the [strength] Go with just we find strength to...
9- though
13- And ... that
14- But
19- And
20- That

Okay, so that concludes words you could do without. Now on to the next thing.

Lines: The end of this poem really shows the jerkiness better than the start of it, even though it is in both places. I'm going to try to describe my issue and you'll see if you want to fix it it or not. I'll use examples both from your poem.

Lines as a theory should be able to stand alone and be read in a new light.
Spoiler! :
Some of your lines work beautifully for that such as "We are our one last furious flame" the adjectives on flame are very beautiful and powerful. This is very poetic, very striking, and an image that I'll probably never forget. It really touched me.

Compare that with "And we know" and perhaps you'll start to see my problem. Now I understand that you need "we know" in your poem, but "we know" really isn't enough to sustain an entire line, and And really doesn't help considering it is just a filler word and the statement is more powerful with "We know/our lives are no less fleeting than the wind."


So, how do we fix it?
Spoiler! :
First off, lets look at the entire sentence you have marked out together.

But they lift us and let us see
The shining sunrise
And we set our course for
Half past sunset
The ephemeral breeze takes us
And we know
That our lives are no less fleeting than the wind.


That's three conjunctions with subordinate clauses in a sentence which doesn't have a real subject. "But they lift us and let us see the shining sunrise and we set our course for half past sunset the ephemeral breeze takes us and we know that our lives are no less fleeting than the wind." Yikes, mouthful. Part of this is punctuation. You missed a period.

The real sentence should just be "The ephemeral breeze takes us and we know that our lives are no less fleeting than the wind." Putting these two images together sort of dulls both of them down in my opinion. First we have this image of us being taken, lifted up and removed by this ephemeral breeze, whatever that might be for us, and after that we have the weight of knowing something.

Personally I think just the breeze taking us is enough to be it's own sentence. No need to weigh it down with the afterthought of "oh, now that I'm up here I can see I was worth while." We know the two things are related. They come right after one another in this poem. That makes them related.

If you really have to have the two together, I'd suggest a ; which provides the end of a sentence, and the start of another one, with a closer connection than a period, but more separation than a comma. Basically if we go for closeness, the ranking goes: , ; . and if we go for separation it's: . ; , so if you're ever like, eh, these are two sentences, but they need to be together, use a semi-colon[;].


That being said, we still need to talk about the line issue.
Spoiler! :
I'd suggest tacking We know, right on the front of "Our lives are no less fleeting than the wind" and if you really need to cut it for enjambment [not that you end any sentences in the middle of lines in this poem [although you could and it might give you a really unique result]] do it somewhere like between less and fleeting. This would change the segment to:

"The ephemeral breeze takes us;
We know our lives are no less
fleeting than the wind."

While "fleeting with the wind." is not a very strong statement, it is a statement in itself. The idea of something vanishing like the wind suddenly letting go is still there. After all, the wind can be very fleeting, so it really gives it a new punch to set that aside.

As for that first part of the 'sentence' which was "But they lift us and let us see the shining sunrise and we set our course for half past sunset..."

I've already said you need to take out 'But', the reason being because "They lift us and let us see" is a really powerful statement.

You could even do "They lift us, let us see," sort of as an injected clause stating that by lifting us, they're letting us see, instead of they lift us, and they also let us see.

After that, you have it cut up so that the sun is shining, yay, sun. I'd suggest a little more descriptive language here because this is a weak part of the poem for visualization. Sure, we can see a sunrise shining, but what's it look like to them, is it some embodiment of their eternal flame? is it a glittering shining sunrise, or is it just a shining sunrise? What colors are playing on the horizon?

Perhaps my issues is that shining sunrise is so typical that it doesn't match the power of the end of this poem. The other issue I have with this is that you've done that sentence thing again. You could break this down into much simpler sentences which might make it easier to read: "They lift us and let us see the shining sunrise. We set our course for half past sunset. The ephemeral breeze takes us." Perhaps it seems a bit choppy, but if you really wanted to, you could eliminate all punctuation from this poem, [that means capitals as well] and let the reader read it how they want, sort of like a loose pool of water forming how it wants instead of to a glass.


So here are my problem areas for your lines:
Spoiler! :
Carries our spirits
Before our time
There will be others
Half past sunset - this one I know you repeat it, and personally I think you need to rework on your breaking for the repeat because this seems too choppy to me. It just doesn't quite work right. We need it to read smoother. Having the for down with half past sunset does help some, but I can't tell if it's because we're already familiar with the fact that it is one sentence or not.


Punctuation:
Spoiler! :
just a quick instruction then I'll be out of your hair. Read this poem through and read it out loud. When you stop, pause, or take a break, if there's not a punctuation mark, consider putting one. Try taking this poem completely out of it's structure and re-breaking it when a statement is made instead of when you pause/see a period/see a comma. You need to at least add more commas. I'd love to see - and ; if you're willing.


Please consider taking out the caps at the beginning of every line. Just give it a shot. It is not mandatory these days in written poetry and really makes poems look joggy. Most poets now a days only caps the first letter of sentences. It gives a more even flow and makes it easier to read through without stopping at the end of each line.

Any questions or want to play with it in real time, give me a shout.




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Wed Jan 22, 2014 11:23 pm
Milanimo wrote a review...



I really enjoyed this poem! The one concern I have is that there are no stanzas. It makes it confusing for the reader and can distract them from the point of the work. In addition, it makes it hard to tell where one thought ends and another begins.
Other than that, it's a good poem, with great meaning and heart, and I really liked it!
Keep writing!




Sinaryn says...


Thank you very much. I usually do separate my poems into stanzas, but for some it seems unnecessary or even harmful to its structure. I am not perfectly happy with this poem, but I think it is good, born of grief as it was. I may edit it someday, but for now it feels wrong to do so. Again, thank you very much for your words.




Hail Hydra
— Stan Lee