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Young Writers Society



A Wanderer's Love

by ThePatchworkPilgrims


To you my love, I can proclaim

That though moon and stars have might,

My world has been possessed by you

And you've given me new light

* *

Through memories of pain and loss

You were my heart’s beacon,

I’ll love you till my heart doth fade

And my pulse then slowly weaken

* *

Your auburn hair takes a shattered me

To fields of hope and peace,

Your eyes have broken the bonds of hate

And brought my soul’s release

* *

Though mortal men have never seen

The glory of God on High,

 Your smile proves that He exists

And that angels really fly

* *

My love for you grows stronger yet

Like Greek operas of old,

Your voice brings grace where fear once was

And turns teardrops into gold

* *

Although you know not what I say now

I know my heart speaks true,

For my life has never been so fair

Until I first met you


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806 Reviews


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Wed Sep 30, 2015 2:12 pm
Aley wrote a review...



Hey Conjurer,

Astral recommended I review all of your stuff because I'm going to finish NaRevMo in like two days and I'm looking for things to review so here I am! You probably have a couple messages from me reviewing your work when you get on.

I would like to start by saying you've got an interesting way to do rhyme. You're actually doing okay with the rhyming in this, although some of them are a bit forced, that's mostly because of the tone of voice you used. Harkening back to an older way of speaking can seem poetic and fun, but in the end it just gets in our way.

For things to critique, I think you should work on taking out "and" and "but" and other filler words to really make this poem shine. I'm not saying take away all of your determiners (the, a ...), but take away some of the things that are just there to make the phrase work as a sentence.

Let me show you.

To you my love, I can proclaim
That though moon and stars have might,
My world has been possessed by you
And you've given me new light


My love, I can proclaim
That though moon and stars have might,
My world has been possessed by you.
You've given me new light


You don't really lose the flow, but you gain time to pause in it, full stops. Shakespeare did this in his plays so you end up with lines with only one or two words even though he writes in Iambic Pentameter. It works really well and you can pick up the flow of the poem later. You also get stronger declarative sentences which make the poem feel more stable and less wishy washy. After all, this is not about someone who has also given them new light, this is someone trying to say I love you, and you can't do that by tacking it onto the end of something.

Overall, I think you picked a really good way of working rhymes into poetry going with an ABCB pattern rather than ABAB. It really helped not only keep your rhymes down to a minimum, but hide them within the poem. I still noticed them though, but that's because you have a stop right there. The ear is naturally going to pick up on a sound that rhymes when it's read out loud. You don't have to pause for dramatic affect, we'll naturally pause when we think back about it because of the rhyme.

I say this because with punctuation it can sort of be an all or nothing game. You don't have any periods, but you have commas and that can be tedious because having a minimal bit of punctuation can interrupt the overall goal. You do have the first letter of every line capitalized too, which encourages the reader to add stops, so that's okay. You might want to explore though, see what other options are out there. Try taking away all of the capitalization, try just adding it at the beginning of sentences. Add punctuation back in, take all punctuation out. See what wants to work best for the tone of the poem.

I hope this helps! You'll be seeing me again shortly,

Until then
-Aley




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Sun Jul 26, 2015 9:41 am
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BrumalHunter wrote a review...



Salutations.

My friend, I have known for some time now that you are in love, but this poem is truly astounding. It is, without a doubt, the best poem - if not the best work - you have ever written.

My Legend:
Red - correction
Orange - suggestion
Green - addition
Blue - removal


To you my love, I can proclaim
That though moon and stars have might,
My world has been possessed by you
And you've given me new light

I shall not make any ignorant suggestions concerning full stops, since its absence is utilised throughout the poem. However, I can say that it is efficient, since it creates the impression that your love doesn't end after the poem is written, but lasts.

As for the stanza itself... When I first read it, I thought the flow was a little choppy, but when I read it again (Mrs Toerien has ensured we shan't ever forget to do that), the flow was fine. But I particularly enjoy how one must read this again to pick up the little things and to understand the poem better. For example, I didn't intially understand why you said the moon and stars had "might", but then I realised you wrote that she gives you new light, in which case it makes perfect sense.

I was also dubious about the use of "possessed" at first, but considering love is an obessive emotion, it works. (Especially when keeping something you told me yesterday in mind...)


Through memories of pain and loss
You were my heart’s beacon,
I’ll love you till my heart does fade
And my pulse then slowly weaken

Here, my suspicions concerning the flow aren't unfounded. If this poem was put to music, I'd imagine it would be composed in four-four time. The first and third lines of this stanza adheres to that rhythm, but the second and fourth do not. The fourth line would only be three beats, followed by a crotchet rest, but the second one would be two and a half. The second syllable of "beacon" would be emphasised, and you can see why that is a problem. If line two was three beats as well,, the flow would be better. Now, I don't have any suggestions, but I do know it sounds off. Read it out loud, and you'll see you have to think about that line, instead of it coming naturally, as with the other three lines.

I also don't want to comment on the comma, since they are consistently used after line two, but is it appropriate to use a comma when there should be a full stop or semi-colon instead? (Remember, this is a comma splice error to which I am referring.)

I question the inclusion of the Old English "doth" - nowhere in the poem do you use any Old English words again, so to be frank, it comes across as you trying to be fancy. In my opinion, it would be much better simply to write "does", since it has the same effect, but it doesn't have a question mark hanging above it.

As a final note on this stanza (double pun, oh yes!), that "weaken" clearly lost its s in favour of rhyme, but that results in using a verb in the plural form, while it is actually being used for a singular noun - your pulse. Just keep this in mind in future.


Your auburn hair takes a shattered me
To fields of hope and peace,
Your eyes have broken the bonds of hate
And brought my soul’s release

See, here the flow is once again long-short, long-short, but the paired lines are the same length now. I expected to introduce a point of critcism here via an adverb of contrast, but I then discovered there is nothing to criticise in this stanza. True, you have probably taken the exaggeration a bit too far, but it is still a lovely stanza.


Though mortal men have never seen
The glory of God on High,
Your smile proves that He exists
And that angels really fly

The flow, vocabulary and imagery here are all superb.


My love for you grows stronger yet
Like Greek operas of old,
Your voice brings grace where fear once was
And turns teardrops into gold

This is my favourite stanza; explanation on why is redundant.


Although you know not what I say now
I know my heart speaks true,
For my life has never been so fair
Until I first met you

Naturally, using a colloquialism such as "don't" would not have fit the style of the poem, but I am glad you avoided it anyway. After all, does "Although you know not what I say now" not sound far more sophisticated and pure than "Although you don't know what I say now"?

This stanza is the perfect conclusion to a heartfelt, genuine poem. All of the emotion you have tried to portray throughout the poem is brought together in these four lines, and what a spectacular four lines they are.


Wanderer, my friend, you have reason to be proud of this poem. Not only does it come from the heart, but it also shows considerable effort and contemplation. When I normally review your poems, I'd have commented at various places about your vocabulary and how it isn't striking enough, but I have no such commentary here. In fact, I hardly used my legend at all, which does not happen very often - I commend you.

To tell you the truth, I think we've found your entry for the Young Writers Literary Journal of 2016...


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Fri Jul 17, 2015 4:47 pm
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AnnaGrace24 wrote a review...



Okay, this was amazing. I loved it so much. So here is my review

I look for things to go check out based on title and description and yours really brought me in because I can never pass up a good love story/poem. So that's definitely a plus. Your choice of words and how you use them honestly reminded me of famous poets. For real. That's awesome.

I could feel your love for this person and that's what I love when I read pieces of writing is feeling what the author is attempting to convey. You definitely did a great job with that.

So keep writing because you have such a talent for it.

-AG




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Thu Jul 16, 2015 9:41 pm
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Annaclare wrote a review...



Okay first off... Awww!!! This poem is legit! I absolutely loved it and I hope this review can prove that! Okay, so how about I stop talking ad start reviewing.

So, when I saw the title to your piece I thought it sounded alright and the I read yor description and how this poem was personalized for you because you love someone. At least that's how I viewed it. That is what brought me to your piece. Not the title or genre it was listed under... but the description. Your description just felt raw and real, and that's what made me he's irate toward this piece. I think that that description is a huge role in this poem... Even though it's not apart of the poem. That is wha draws people in, and then you have the opening paragraph and the reader finds themselves hooked.

The first stanza was very intriguing. I like how you started talking about the stars and how they are so powerful. This is a great way to start a poem because it captivated the reader. Then you turn the subject by saying that this perso you love has more power. Over you than the stars have over the sky. That is my perspective at least and I find it quote beautiful.

My favorite stanza was the fourth one. I love how you tie this information all together to make something so beautiful to read. I think that you have managed to paint a picture with words, and then singing is beyond words. I Loved it! I loved pretty much very thing about this poem.

Okay, so I hate being negative but sometimes I have to give some critism, but to be honest I have nothing bad to say! You did an amazing job writing this! it is very organized and crisp! You have major talent! Keep writing!

It was my pleasure reading your piece!

Stay classy and write on.

-Annaclare





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