I'll say it first thing: this poem makes me feel guilty about all my notebooks sitting in drawers right now.
How I have interpreted this poem:
Someone got a new notebook. When they opened the notebook, they flipped through the blank pages and thought about all the possibilities this notebook held. Then the owner placed the notebook in a drawer and forgot about it. This has happened many times before, so the drawer is filled to the brim with unused notebooks. The notebooks still sit there, awaiting the day their owner takes them all out and fills them with amazing things. The notebooks dream of the days when they will be used and loved and treasured. Most of the notebooks have lost hope that they will ever be used. They believe their owner has forgotten about them and will never remember that they are sitting in that drawer. One notebook in particular, the narrator of the story, is remembering the times when it was new and its owner eagerly looked through its pages. This notebook wants something more and still has a hope that it will be used again for wonderful things.
In a way, I think this story is about not losing hope, as well as not forgetting about things that might have a greater purpose than just sitting on a shelf.
One thing that throws me off:
At first you say
I have sat on the shelf for far too long
which implies that the notebook is currently sitting on the shelf. But the rest of the poem is in past tense, where the notebook is sitting in a drawer reminiscing about when it was picked out. If you wanted the whole thing to be in the past tense to make more sense, you could say I had sat on the shelf for far too long. Also the notebook says
Will it be musings, songs, and poetry?
Will it have schemes so grand or lists so plain?
I think it should say would it instead of will it, since the notebook is remembering fantasizing about what its owner might write on its pages.
Connecting this poem to my own life:
Like I mentioned at the beginning of this review, I have lots of notebooks sitting in drawers waiting to be used. Many of them are old school notebooks that I kept because they still had lots of blank pages in the back. Sadly, I have almost never used those blank pages. I do however, have a drawer full of empty notebooks. They have been sitting there for months, the longest ones having sat there for three years. I do have a plan for each and every single one of these notebooks, though they don't know it yet. I will fill them with rough drafts for novels and novellas.
Message to the notebooks:
Don't lose hope, little notebooks! Maybe your owner is like me and is just waiting for the right story to arrive. I guarantee, even if your owner has forgotten about you, no one will forsake you! Someday someone will find you and use you.
All in all, this is a very clever, well organized and well thought out poem in a new perspective. It's original and has a nice flow. I applaud you on this literary work.
*clapping*
:)
Points: 405
Reviews: 29
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