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Review #4298460
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Review by Jay O'Toole
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Lostwordsmith, thank you for the privilege of sharing this review of your good poem. I am counting on my words encouraging you in life and in your writing. :D

*ButtonV*Overall Impression: You were very accurate with your form of the quatern poem. The first and last line are the refrain. In the four verses the refrain sinks lower into the verse with each subsequent verse. I was not aware of this visual stylistic feature until I did a little research. Thank you for teaching me something new with this poem.

*Pencil*Suggestions: The rhythm of the refrain is iambic tetrameter. In rereading the poem I see that iambic tetrameter was the intention throughout the poem for all of the lines. If I may offer an insight,...some of the lines seem a bit forced with regard to the iambic meter. I my own poetry, especially where iambic meter is used, since it is my consistent rhythm of choice, I maintain a strictness in grading my own meters. Bottom Line: I try to keep the emphatic parts of the rhythm in the same place where the emphasis would traditionally be in the word used.

In this line "in a place untouched, still pristine" an iambic meter can be maintained by the following pattern of emphasis. "in A place UN-touched, STILL pri-STINE." "A" & "un" are usually syllables without emphasis. If we reorder the line just slightly, we maintain natural emphasis, while maintaining iambic meter. The line would become, "in PLACE un-TOUCH-ed STILL pri-STINE." I hope I have expressed this well, encouraged your heart, and remained true to the intent of the poem.

In the line "a command performance just for me" iambic meter is maintained easily by simply omitting the first word, "a."

In the line "in THE won-DROUS waltz OF the SEA," if we drop the first word, "in" and substitute a new word for "the," then the iambic meter reads naturally. The result would be something like, "the WON-drous WALTZ of A-zur SEA." Here the syllable "a" for "azur" is only one syllable, but it is the emphasized syllable.

I'm really impressed as to how well you wrote in iambic meter with just these few minor changes. I hope it is well-received to emphasize the importance of logically keeping the emphasis in its natural place in the words we use in the meter we have chosen. I go around and around and around with myself to avoid using one- or two-syllable words in emphatic positions in metric rhythm schemes especially when the small syllables are not usually emphasized. However, I still find at times that it is unavoidable.

*Apple*Rhythm & Rhyme Scheme: As we have just discussed the iambic meter is well-maintained throughout the poem and the A-B-A-B rhyme scheme is kept as well. However, verse #3 has become the interesting A-A-A-A rhyme scheme.

*Heart*What I Like: I like the fact that you pull the reader into the poem. The question for me in bas relief is "Who is the lady?" Are we watching a show from the viewing window of a large oceanic aquarium? Are we swimming alongside a nature photographer or videographer, who is capturing the on-going relationship between a swimmer and her dolphin friends? There is a great deal in this poem to create mystery, which was no doubt your intent with this shadowy poetry genre.

Thank you for taking the time to read my review. I hope I have been beneficial to you in some way. :D

*StarB* A Rising Star Member to Member review.

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   *CheckG* You responded to this review 02/05/2017 @ 8:45am EST
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