10-30-2014, 09:33 PM
Hello.
(10-28-2014, 08:51 AM)J.C. Fontenot Wrote: An array of blue hues painted on his feathers, no need for hues - array itself suggests plurality, in combination with blue it is obvious its more huesSumma summarum, the good points of this poem are the selection of the topic and the characteristic of the special kind of king. try improving on those.
a crown of similar color spiking from his head, the spiking is interesting word for showing the crown, it fits well with a bluejay, but this line is a too wordy, the biggest problem is "of similar color"
beauty bestowed by Darwin's theory. suggeston: Beauty bestowed by Darwin. everyone knows what Darwin is associated with, and this way it would enrich the poem with a metonymy. Consider also changing beauty into something different, beauty is very general, very common
his shadow demands respect from inferiors below, not entirely sure, but inferiros already suggest that they are below, if not physically, than at least metaphorically. And why is it his shadow that demands respect, when you dedicate your previous stanza to his colors?
soaring, screeching, moving about, i lke the feet in this line, the change to iamb from trochee at the end, it kind of makes an impact, but isn't moving about too lowly to be a characteristics of a king? to me, it evokes like vargants moving about in the streets when the kings processionis passing or sthg like that. considering the following line, what about trying to show that the king can move without patterns and yet majestically?
no algorithmic patterns for the king himself, too wordy, algorythmic and patterns suggest the same, one of these would be enough
who dare lurk above him? good shift from movement of the king to the movement of the subjects, also the choice of "lurk" is good - it suggest that when someone would be above him, it would be "illegal". but somehow I cannot come to terms with the overall formulation of this line, not sure why. maybe because "who dare" is a litte bit chlichee? but in general this line is good
giving orders with song, this line is nice. giving orders with song captures both the king-ness and the bird-ness, it combines well
springing from his majestic organs, springing is probably redundant. we know that the song goes out of his organs, so the point of this line is probably the characterization of those organs. come on, you surely can come up with something better, more specifc than "majestic"
who dare challenge the kings tongue? nice elaboration on the organs, since the tongue is one. why in the last line of the previous stanza the king reffered to as "he" and here is is already "the king"?
perhaps he knows these natural laws,
for he is king Blue Jay,
king of the yard. a strange mixture of everyday language (perhaps, yard...), academic language (natural laws) and poetic language (for he is), it just makes a mess. in this stanza, the only new info is that he perhaps knows these laws, the last two lines are already been strongly suggested in the poem. Is your point that the king is king because he knows he is the king (that he knows these laws?) if so, elaborate, make it more powerful, it is the end of the poem, the strongest point should be here!
Thistles.

