Birth of July

by Adnamarine

Published July 2, 2008

In Poetry

July awakens,
born from the middle month
in the balmy peace of summer midnight.

Heat neither slackens
nor increases, quivers like a moth
around a light, waiting for the moment she breaks

in golden green glory,
canopied in purple, heralded
by rumbling as of drums, flashes take the place of fanfare.

On a foray,
with crashes set to shake the very ground,
the earth; sheets of blue vehemently descend to veil her path.

Canny calmness,
sweet serenity - she's come and gone,
leaving her newborn babe, fresh and novel, clothed in sky-blue and green.

Comments & reviews · 6
User avatar
i think i can
Review
i think i can wrote a review Review · Jul 14, 2008

July awakens,< - nice beginning, sets the tone.

born from the middle month

in the balmy peace of a summer midnight. <-very evocative. (hands out cookie)



Heat does not slackens <- I take it you mean “slacken”?

nor increases, quivers like a moth <-i think adding But would help this flow smoothly

around a light, waiting for the moment she breaks


in golden green glory, <- just a slight query, usually you link two colours together like “blue-green sea”. But no matter how hard I try I cannot picture a golden green.


canopied in purple, heralded <-again very evocative imagery

with rumbling as of drums, flashes taking place of fanfare. <-eh whoa… I think that’s a bit longwinded.



On a foray,

with crashes set to shake the very ground,

the earth; sheets of blue vehemently descend to veil her path. <- nice imagery



Canny calmness, <- the calmness is shrewd enough to be easily deceived? I think you mean uncanny :?

sweet serenity - she's come and gone, <-beautiful.

leaving her newborn babe, fresh and novel, clothed in sky-blue and green. <- perfect… absolutely perfect line.

I really enjoyed this poem, you are obviously a gifted poet. I will go and dig up more of your work :D

User avatar
Jasmine Hart
Review
Jasmine Hart wrote a review Review · Jul 12, 2008

Your imagery is beautiful, and the theme is interesting. I love the first stanza. It flows well, and I love "born from the middle month." I think the layout could be alterted a little so it's moer pleasing to the eye...hope you don't mind me showing you, as it's easier that way;

"July awakens,
born from the middle month
in the balmy peace
of [s]a [/s]summer midnight. (I don't think you really need "a".)

Heat [s]does not [/s] neither slackens
nor increases,
quivers like a moth [s]a[/s]round a light,
waiting for the moment she'll break

in golden-green glory, (lovely alliteration)
canopied in purple, heralded (This is a great image.)
[s]with[/s] by rumbling as of drums, (this is a touch too wordy)
flashes taking place of fanfare. (I think this line is too long and too conciously poetic. Maybe try something simpler.)

On a foray, [s]with[/s] crashes
set to shake
the very ground,
the [s]earth;[/s] sheets of blue [s]vehemently[/s]
descend to veil
her shattered (or some ther two-syllabyl word) path.

Canny calmness, sweet
serenity - she's come and gone,
leaving her newborn babe,
fresh and novel,
clothed in sky-blue and green. (Lovely ending.) "

Hope this helps.

Jas

User avatar
Sapphire
Review
Sapphire wrote a review Review · Jul 11, 2008

I only read this today, even though it's from last week, and I just wanted to leave a comment and say how much I liked it!

The only thing that I picked out was when you edited you forgot to change the verb:

Heat does not slacken[s]s[/s]
nor increase[s]s[/s], quivers like a moth


You could maybe add in 'but quivers like a moth'.

I loved every word, colour and image. It's a beautiful poem!

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scribblingquill
Comment
scribblingquill commented Comment · Jul 2, 2008

This is really cool, I agree the imagery is great.

But I agree there's something jarring about "Heat not slackens".


But yeah. go you.

User avatar
Azila
Review
Azila wrote a review Review · Jul 2, 2008

Wow. I don't know much about poetry -- and thus don't review it much -- but I saw this on the front page and started reading... and loved it immediately. The imagery is just beautiful. And I love the way you describe colors.

Heat not slackens
I didn't like this part. I understand what you're saying, but i don't like the way you worded it. Maybe "heat does not slacken"? I think that would be better. But, likt I've already said, I don't know much about poetry -- so you can ignore this if you want?

quivers like a moth
around a light, waiting for the moment she breaks
This is a beautiful metaphor -- especially because moths around a light is such a symbol of summer. But I do think that there should either be a comma, dash, or even a line break after "moment."

Anyway, like I said before -- I'm not very well-versed in poetry or it's guidelines/normalities. But I did enjoy this quite a lot. Whatever that mean o you. :D


PM me if you have a question that you think I could answer.

Good work.
~Azila~



If I'm going to burn, it might as well be bright.
— Frank Zhang