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| Critical Analysis #2 |
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Hack |
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Grinch Member Elite
since 2005-12-31
Posts 2929Whoville |
Over the brook and the hedges we fly On leather through heather with blood in our eye The red of our jackets a blur flashing by There’s me and the dashing Miss Fortegue-Smye Turn for the wood and the pack is in sight All baying displaying their canine delight He’s into the bushes then out in full flight They have him! They have him! I knew that they might He’s slipped through a culvert! He’s getting away The horn man! The horn man! Back into the fray Galloping into a wondrous display As the lead hound bowls over our petulant prey Blood smeared on her cheek and a tear in her eye Say farewell to childhood Miss Fortegue-Smye |
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moonbeam
since 2005-12-24
Posts 2356 |
In my best Janice Litman voice: "OH MYY GODD" This is absolutely exquisite! Move over Betjeman and Miss Joan Hunter Dunn - a new force has been born in the world of the comic dactyl. This is faultlessly conceived, satirically pin point, a rich trifle of joy, a bubbly little rapier in the backside of one of the less attractive facets of jolly old Britain. A million baying thank you's. |
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Not A Poet Member Elite
since 1999-11-03
Posts 3885Oklahoma, USA |
Damn. Moonbeam beat me to it. This is absolutely delightful. Now I understand why I can't write. |
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Grinch Member Elite
since 2005-12-31
Posts 2929Whoville |
Thanks chaps, The truth is this was a little doodle prompted by perusing recent posts and topics. Sonnets have cropped up a fair few times and explanations of iambic pentameter but the clincher was Bill’s three minute poem. I just put them together and tried to knock out a sort of sonnet, in anything but iambic pentameter, written in as close to three minutes as possible. It took ten btw and I think it shows. quote: I think this just proves that I can’t. |
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moonbeam
since 2005-12-24
Posts 2356 |
"I think this just proves that I can't" I hope you realise Grinch that false modesty is ultimately fatal. (10 minutes! humm, mutter, pout, mutter) |
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Not A Poet Member Elite
since 1999-11-03
Posts 3885Oklahoma, USA |
I think he lies  |
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Bob K Member Elite
since 2007-11-03
Posts 4208 |
Dear Grinch, Events in the couplet are a bit vague for me and I'd want them as crisply in focus as the rest. My wife, the lovely Elaine, says that the heroine has had to deal with the actual distress of the hunt's outcome, with is unpretty, and is at the same time thrilled and disgusted. I can see where she gets this reading, but it didn't jump out at me... If this is a proper reading, why not send the thing out someplace. It's an elegant turn and not simply funny. I love the crispness and the wonderful bravura use of meter. Bob Kaven |
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moonbeam
since 2005-12-24
Posts 2356 |
"My wife, the lovely Elaine, says that the heroine has had to deal with the actual distress of the hunt's outcome, with is unpretty, and is at the same time thrilled and disgusted. I can see where she gets this reading, but it didn't jump out at me..." The lovely Elaine is right. It probably didn't jump out at you Bob, because much of the force and fun of the poem is in the peculiarly English sub-text, and you are probably a heathen yank  . 4th July deprived you lot, inter alia, of the delights of that warped outlook that only a British public school upbringing can bestow . It's all in the name I guess "Fortegue-Smye" (take off of Fortesque-Smthye of course), double barrelled naturally. The poor girl's whole early life is laid out before us in that name. A world where six of the best is considered "character forming", and gals are encouraged to wear hair shirts and plunge into cold lakes before breakfast. Grinch portrays the hunt as a kind of coming of age - the point where the last shreds of humanity and natural feminine compassion are shed. I'd like to think that the tear in her eye is - as the fair Elaine surmises - a genuine remorse, but I regret to say that I suspect it's likely to be as much a tear of in-bred fanatical excitement as she surrenders to a social universe where "feelings" is the dirtiest word in the dictionary.Ah well, what a horrid cynic I am! Heh. M |
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Grinch Member Elite
since 2005-12-31
Posts 2929Whoville |
quote: Wouldn’t that remove the possibility for individual interpretation and alienate some readers? I’m probably wrong here Bob but I was working on the premise that allowing the reader to get out of the poem exactly what they wanted through an interpretation based on their worldview was a good thing. If done correctly my thought was that Moon would see this as a swipe at upper class aloofness and cruelty, Elaine would have caught the possibility of regret and the human sadness of the heroine and Miss Fortegue-Smye (name changed to protect the innocent and avoid possibly protracted and expensive litigation) might just see it as a reminder of a rollicking good wheeze in the Hamptons. I was aiming for everyman but I’ll concede that I probably missed by a country mile - I’ll have another shot if this ever gets a re-write. Thanks for the chance to read and reply. |
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moonbeam
since 2005-12-24
Posts 2356 |
Well, tssk, you obviously see me as totally class phobic. Anyway, I saw All the possibilities - so there!M |
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