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To Autumn ---- antipasto


We lay,
Decayed,
On mushroom spores
And unmarked graves,
While children crunched our bones

And giggled.
©2005-2009 ~antipasto
:iconantipasto:

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. . . .

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:iconinziladun:
there's a discrepancy of tense here; 'lay' and 'decayed' are past tense (though the latter can also be read as an adjective) while 'crunch' and 'giggle' are in the present. but changing 'lay' to present tense dispels the tone of the poem, partly because when the plural speaker's lying on graves is made present disenchantment sets in; the past tense legitimises this otherwise dull and too-brief scene. the tense discrepancy needs to be resolved though. if on the other hand you're using 'lay' as the incorrect present tense of the verb 'to lie', I suggest that when you edit this you make the verb past tense, because like I said present tense would be flaccid as hell.
I like the idea of laying on top of graves and mushrooms, because like autumn this anticipates instead of embodies death and ending; I find 'spores' to be a little ironic too, since they are essentially seeds which are associated rather with spring. combining graves (death) and spores (life) brings about a kind of limbo, which is in some sense and in one view what autumn is. the dichotomy is evident also in 'bones' and 'children'; life and death exist side by side.
this is not a bad poem, mainly because very little is said and the poem isn't given the opportinuty to fail, so to speak; but also because what little is given is vivid and visual, there's enough to grab onto - neither too little (i.e. the piece is not madly abstract) nor too much (the imagery is simple and scant but effective because it's slightly visceral - 'decayed', 'spores', 'graves', 'crunch', 'bones'). but this is on the brink of being unsuccessful, because at the moment its power is in its fluidity and immediateness (the whole poem is a single sentence) - it wouldn't take a lot of tampering to wreck that. but good stuff, on the whole. :)

--
but, mainly, Stay Classy
:iconantipasto:
Thanks for the great comment!

Your critique is well appreciated. I didn't even realize the discrepancy in the tenses, as I'm a loser when it comes to distinguishing between lay and lie. I've followed your suggestion and changed the changed the tenses of the crunch and giggle. Much love for pointing that out.

I agree with your statement that this is on the brink of being unsuccessful. I actually intended the poem to be longer, but I couldn't squeeze anything else out of my brain.

Thanks again :)
:iconinziladun:
welcome :>

--
but, mainly, Stay Classy

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November 14, 2005
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