EDIT::: You say you didn't change this at all, eh? That's weird, why would it have come up in stanzas when I reviewed it? Anyway, I guess you'll have to work around that when reading my comments.
The time for reviewing is upon us!
Sticking the poem to the front of the story was a good idea. It was nice having an idea of what sort of character I'm dealing with going into the story preface. I believe the other reviewer mentioned vampires and werewolves...I read it more as a spirit of death, but I guess that's because I tend to read things literally.
I'm not a poet, but I'll do my best here.
dressed in simple peasant clothes.
I would delete 'peasant'. Since simplicity is what you're trying to convey, I think peasant is sort of redundant. I also feel like the stanza flows better with that word omitted. Aside from that, it's a very nice opening.
I incinerate your being
yet you don't put up a fight.
I have trouble with "incinerate", because I can't decide how literal it's supposed to be. The second line sounds like a forced rhyme.
I am the misfortune fate forced upon you,
May I suggest: "I am the misfortune put upon you"? Or, "I am the misfortune forced..." if you want to keep that word. I think fate's role is implied, and doesn't need to be stated explicitly. There's nothing else that could affect someone's fortunes (except for witches/wizards, but if this story were about magic you probably would have mentioned it elsewhere in the poem.) Taking out "fate" also helps the flow. It sounded like there was an extra syllable in there.
This meager task is simple
I'm ok with having 2 adjectives together like that, but "meager" and "simple" are similar in meaning. It's not strictly redundant or wrong, but I think making your adjectives dissimilar would be good here.
You all come to love life
and the lives of many others.
But the ending is the same
for you and for your brothers.
There's nothing wrong with this stanza, but from a word economy standpoint I feel like it doesn't contribute enough to the poem. Keep it if you like it, but if I had to choose 1 stanza to chop it would be this one. I also think that transitioning straight from "it is my evil chore" to "my life was made to end yours" has more impact.
Rather than to open,
I close all of your doors.
I question your use of "to" here. I'm not always perfect with the real nitty-gritties of grammar, but I think it has to do with "to open" being infinitive and "I close" being conjugated. How about: "I offer you no windows, and close all of your doors"? That way both verbs being contrasted are conjugated with "I" in present tense.
Nice finishing stanza. It wraps things up nicely by giving us a more to-the-point explanation of exactly who/what we're dealing with here.
Now, on to the preface portion.
resonance rising up my spine
"resonance rising" = "resonating"
Scarlet touches her creamy, white skin; it almost mimics her blush.
I'm confused by this. I'm not sure what "scarlet" is.
Talking about the lips creates a small sexual undertone that may not be intentional. Just thought I'd point that out.
I slam my fist on the wooden floorboards,
Would the noise not wake her up? And the following sentence, me being as literal as I am, makes me imagine something quote gory. Do the veins actually break through the skin?
General thoughts:
It's all very good. The poem does a good job of introducing the main so that we have some idea of what's going on in the opening scene of the story. In the preface, though, I'd like to see some more detial. Campus security is kicking me out of the library, so I gtg!
Points: 890
Reviews: 7
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