Young Writers Society

Hey Lizz,

I'm back again!

I'm going straight for interpretation.

Interpretation
So I think this poem is written in the style of anti-poetry, meaning that on one level this poem is a critique of all poetry in general. To me the specific critique in this poem, is what meaning are we painting with words, if any? And do we maybe claim too much authority with our poems and metaphors to the extend that we believe we can even make dogs gods?

Now as far as the meaning of the words in this poem. I think this could be interpreted in a host of different ways!

1) Dogs have become like the gods of people's households. The poem is pointing out how ridiculous that is, by taking the topic to poetic form, and emphasizing the selfishness of it with the capital "Our" -> meaning that even "we" are now "our gods".

2) This could be a critique of modern religious action and belief -> either that our gods have turned into the idols that we like, things that we can boss around. Or that it is often meaningless and nonsensical.

3) Or this could primarily be about poetry and not dogs or gods at all, but rather the ridiculousness of words and poetic form.

Sound Devices
I think it's very clever that you used two pairs of words that sound almost identical. "Are"/"Our" and "dogs"/"gods" -> this at one level illustrates the point that dogs and gods are the same, at least rhetorically.

At another level, it makes it feel like there's some hidden meaning, like maybe if I could read this poem backwards or inside out I would be able to stumble upon some more sense.

Formatting
I didn't love the blue for "Gods" because I don't think it particularly illuminated any meaning for me, that's just a personal preference though, and if you were going with the third meaning of the poem - then you might have chosen it specifically to illustrate the dissonance in meaning/non-meaning anyways.

I did like how the words got smaller as they went on, because one would expect the word "gods" to be biggest, but instead "dogs" was the biggest - which again illustrates the point of the poem.

Effectiveness
I think a short poem like this, is ideal in a series or with an author's note that points to it's artistic merit. I think people's first impulse when seeing a short poem is to decide that it's only a joke. And while I think this poem does have "joke merits", I don't think that's all it is.

If you did a longer series of poems to go with this one, other interesting topics might be to explore what makes gods like dogs, what is the effect of the color blue font, what do words mean, what are dogs, what are gods. etc.


Overall, an entertaining and thought-provoking little poem.

Please let me know if you wanted further feedback on any other aspects that I missed!

~alliyah

Hi there @LadyBird I am here to do a review on your work.
First this is very short and I think that it would be better if you make this a lot longer, for it would be more intrusting to read instead of reading three words, okay the sentence with Dogs are, is like saying the dogs could be any thing, but you hat to say our Gods I don’t really think that is very good. I will help you with it though.
Dogs are
Really good
At running.

Dogs are
Funny
some times.

Dogs are
Lovely
Animals .

Dogs are
Very
Slobbery.

Dogs are
Very
Handsome
After going to the Parlour.
So that is all that I can say, so keep up the good work. HAPPY REVIEW DAY.
@EagleFly out to seek and kill

Hi Ladybird! This is a short poem, and it may have been just to check out formatting (I honestly had no idea we could do that many fonts), but I'll review it anyway.

It's a simple statement, based on a play of words that I have always found amusing, how "dog" is "god" spelled backwards. But there's actually a grain of truth to it in that dogs are an integral part of many people's lives. My mom calls our pets her "babies". I think she likes that they'll never grow up and talk back to her . But yeah, having a dog can really impact your life, from where you live (many apartments won't allow pets) to where you go on vacation to what you spend your money on. While I don't think most people literally worship their dogs, they definitely can have a major impact on us like our belief (or lack thereof) in a god. A person might also confide in a dog not expecting a response, the same way they might pray knowing God won't talk back.

So yeah, this is a short and possibly tongue-in-cheek statement, but there's hidden meaning there. Also what is that "gods" font I want to use that for all my poems now. Keep writing!

Hello LadyBird!

I've seen your name around a bit now, and it's starting to become familiar. I assume this poem is just a joke, or possibly a device that you used to explore the amusing formatting available on the site. And actually, I'm only submitting a review to this work because I'm trying to build up my points because I have a series of poems I want to write and publish... But I like this, it's short, relatively pointless, and amusing. Your use of multiple colors and word sizes adds to your creativity.

Thanks for making me smile today!
Autopilot

And
Cats
are
demons