Autumn

Bit late on GN today!

Scarlet that is a beautifully constructed, poignant poem, and I loved it. Some of us do write, and post the occasional poem, and I for one am glad that you did.

bags

I've got shelves full of poetry books inherited from a friend and would love to learn more, although I sometimes wonder if I should pass them on to someone, say a young student, that would really need them. But they're such beautiful books.

Just to be clear: I read real confusion in Beryl's remarks (she mentioned confusion) and a real apology, so my post was an attempt to smooth the troubled waters a little. An abject failure, it would seem. Hey ho.

galen, the first poem I quoted from is Tithonus. It's miserable allright!

Just to be clear:
There is nothing bad-tempered in my posts on this thread.

I appreciate that, jane, and I wouldn't really object to serious suggestions about how I could improve my poems.

Just to be clear, I wasn't classifying beryl's remark as literary criticism

gracesmum; methinks you've lost your true vocation in life .

ffinoccio- I haven't published any before except for a couple of competitions (which I won!) so I am still at the stage of seeing them as my babies and wanting to defend them. I will try to follow your lead and just 'publish and be damned'.

Scarlet - I just chuck my 'poems' in as and when although I'm not altogether sure they are poems . Just a bit of rambling mostly. The thing is, I enjoy it, and it gives me pleasure.

Anno - I like your idea. Do you mean home-grown poems?

Gracesmum.......

I will have another go at posting one of my poems, on the Chat thread, but I agree it would be nice to have a dedicated thread.

I too am not sure that "bloody miserable" is quite what most of us understand by literary criticism. Gratuitous insult, yes, but if that is indeed literary criticism I wonder how we might review e.g. a book such as "A Tale of Two Cities" - guy gets guillotined in place of another. Bloody miserable.
Or theatre criticism - a production of "Hamlet". "Bloody miserable - everybody dies?"
Tosca- "Went on a bit, then the fat lady sang and it was over. Most people died, bloody miserable"
The new English National Ballet's Le Corsaire - " Lots of fit guys with not much in the way of tops on, jumping a lot: girls in sticky out frocks on tippy toe - goes on for over 2 hours, but then they all drown in a shipwreck. Bloody miserable"

I also thought your poem beautiful. I love autumn and I think you caught its essence perfectly. I also have far more years behind me than I care to think about but autumn also means that after winter spring will be with us, my second favourite time of year. Thank you for sharing your poem.

I am not 'averse to literary criticism' and welcomed it when I was submitting work for my English degree. I am just not sure that what was said would help anybody to understand my poem. It just came over as very nasty and the 'apology' was just as flippant and very insincere. I haven't noticed any criticism of other poems on the forum, just appreciation, so it felt very personal and I have no idea why Berylmaudie should have done it.

I would like to suggest a poetry thread since we do have a number of good lyrical poets. Any criticism should be constructive - sorry, wearing English teacher's hat there.
How about it, Cari/Lara?

Scarlet, autumn is my favourite season and your poem caught for me the essence of both the season and this period of my life. I was sixty this year and am conscious that I have more years behind me than ahead - your poem hooks into my feelings about both. Please continue to publish, poetry is very subjective and there will always be a variety of opinions, but if this poem is anything to go by then you have a gift that I for one would like you to continue sharing.

Scarlet21 I think that your poem is beautiful.

merlotgran your first sentence is so true,

This is the season of remembrance. The older we get the more we have to harden ourselves against the sadness of some past events. It's so much easier when you are young.

My mother would never read anything with even a hint of sadness whereas I find it comforting to 'feed' my emotions - privately though as I can't stand drama queens.

I'm not sure why you are averse to literary criticism Scarlet, since it is only an attempt to try to understand your poem.
Berylmaudie made an unpleasant comment, for which she has made a grudging half-apology, but everyone else has either been complimentary or made a neutral comment.
I too thought it was sad, and a metaphor for the fading life itself.

Thank you for everybody who has made a kind remark. When I wrote it, I was just feeling nostalgic for my youth, which seemed to have passed - at 30! Now, that makes me smile. I didn't really expect my poem to be subjected to literary criticism on a friendly site like this. Now I am not sure I have the courage to submit any more of my poems. I have spent quite a long time reading poems submitted by other members - some really appeal to me, but when I don't like one I have just said nothing.
Who is matron?

Scarlet what a gifted poet you are! I was looking for the name of the author at the end of it,trying to think who it might be, so I am hugely impressed that it is your own composition. Thank you for sharing it. I have printed it out to keep with the collection of verse and writings that I have come across over the years, which I like.

Not misery. Regret and sadness.

I understand your assessment, berylmaudie, where you're coming from, when you described the poem as miserable. I think if you'd missed out the word 'bloody', it might have seemed more acceptable as a literary criticism.

A lot of quite famous autumnal poems contain a good deal of sadness because they are about the death of the year. I'm thinking right now of Tennyson's lines:
^The woods decay, the woods decay and fall,
The vapours weep their burthen to the ground^

and

^Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depths of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy autumn fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.^

There is misery in those too.

I loved the poem Scarlet

that is very true. being rude is bad. Matron will tell me off now.