Isla de las Muñecas (Island of the Dolls)
There are a hundred dolls hanging from trees
Ghosts of children wash up on the shore
With arms around their dolls
Get strung up by their chests and necks
mommy mommy (the ocean whispers along the reef)
Some blond-haired porcelain doll was the first
Dressed for church (now in rags and her ghost is long gone)
She is holding her arms out to no one
because the island doesn’t sing
Points:
Time spent:
IP address:
Canary word: Present
Possible AI signals:
Original Text:
Are you sure you want to delete this comment? This cannot be undone.
Mark this comment as a review? Points will be awarded to the poster.
Your comment was posted, but it wasn’t long enough to count as a review. Reviews need about four complete sentences (at least 250 characters). Try writing another review that explains your thoughts in more detail — the author will appreciate it, and you’ll earn points for it.
140,811 Literary Works • 673,693 Reviews
I saw the title of the poem and thought it looked very interesting. I actually searched up the Island of the Dolls and I think you've really captured the whole feel of it here. I think it is a poem that draws people in at first sight, and I love how you haven't made it entirely creepy, like it could be, but beautiful and sad. It kinda tortures me to hear about how things can go so wrong, and how there's only a doll left of what once was a beautiful person. One thing though, I think perhaps there could be more description about the doll, and maybe more feeling surrounding it. I still love this poem though, and it's really good.
Well done!
You've got one nice piece here
But I'm curious: why did you choose to write the title in Spanish?
Because it is an actual place
The island of the dolls has always interested me. But yes Gee, the Island of the Dolls is a real place in Mexico where thousands of dolls have been scattered across the island by a man in the 1900s trying to please the spirit of a girl who drowned in the river there. Oddly enough, the man drowned there as well, and it is considered one of the most haunted places in the world. I suggest looking into it ^^
Hi emmylou1995, acm here for a review!
This was a pretty creepy poem, but I liked it a lot. It had a good topic and a creative idea. I just have a few suggestions to bring this poem to its full potential, so without further ado, I'll start the review.
1. The poem reads a bit like a paragraph, which isn't bad, but since you have a lot of freedom in free-verse, it could be used to your advantage. I don't know if you've heard about the phrase that says, 'Show your words, don't tell them.'
This is a good place to start. Instead of saying that they were rags, you could describe the state of the clothes (torn, filthy, ripped, hanging by a thread, falling apart) and you could show that the ghost was gone by saying something like, 'She was cold as death, too cold even for a ghost.'
2. I think you could have explained the doll's role in the poem better. They seem to be haunted or cursed (that's how I understood the poem), but that doesn't give much. Do the dolls give life to the island? Do they haunt it? Are they drawn to it?
3. I noticed that there wasn't really any punctuation in the poem. It doesn't seem like it takes too much from the poetry, but I think if you added a few commas here and there it would read a lot better. I struggle with punctuating my poems too, but I've found that it really helps to read it aloud and add a comma, period, or dash where you read a pause.
This line is amazing. I love how you personified the ocean. It really gave off a creepy feel.
Well that's all I have in the way of suggestions. I'd like to end by saying how much I really liked this poem. I hope I didn't sound too harsh in my review.
Keep writing!
--acm