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Poppy
A vase of poppies on the table there,
Twelve years have past, all white is now her hair.
A shadow running up the path she sees,
Her son has come! Her end to miseries.
Twelve years have past all white is now her hair.
She missed him much, with fear she couldn’t bear.
Her son has come, her end to miseries!
With grateful heart, she drops down on her knees.
She missed him much, with fear she couldn’t bear.
A shadow running up the path she sees.
With grateful heart, she drops down on her knees.
A vase of poppies on the table there.
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April
The snowdrops bloom, the raindrops fall,
__The crickets lullaby.
The snow has left once and for all.
__The eaglets learn to fly.
It is the April of the year,
__The crocuses all sprout.
The birds are singing; Spring is here!
__The river’s full of trout.
So let’s go outside and rejoice,
__The Earth has come alive!
The wind is whispering a noise.
__The bees fly from their hive.
The Summer soon enough will come,
__Then Fall, then Winter’s drear.
And if you add them up; the sum’s
__The seasons of the year.
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A.S. Chuba is thirteen years old and attends Maryvale Academy in Canada.
Your ability to express your thoughts in poetic fashion goes far beyond your age. Let’s see More !
Anna, these are excellent examples of different lyric forms, presented in crystal clear language. “Poppy” is a pantoum, and because that is a special category on this website, the word should be added to the list of categories following the date on this post, so that yours comes up along with others when anyone searches for pantoums. It is a very good one, bringing out strong emotion in its repetitions of simple words. The “vase of poppies” seems to be a single detail marking the happy day when the son returned. The singular “Poppy” as title suggests that the young man is the only drug the mother needed to heal her grief and fear. Well done!
I particularly enjoyed ‘April’, Anna.
If Wordsworth had condensed his poetic tomes into a short, accessible poem, I believe this is what he might have written.
Thanks for the reads.
I enjoyed “Poppy” very much – I’ve never tried writing a pantoum, it’s always seemed far too daunting. But you’ve used it to good effect to capture a joyful moment in time, placing that moment as the culmination of twelve years’ grieving.
Here in New England, April is often a month of false hopes and ruined crops as “the snow [that] has left once and for all” returns with a vengeance. At best, it’s mud season, a time to be lured out into a newly green field, only to slip in the muck and end up with it all over your backside. So your take on April couldn’t help but make me smile. Well done!
This Pantoum is so rich in language and thoughts, Anna, I think some sentences are so much creaditful, like all white is now her hair
Anna, I love both poems, but the pantoum has turned my head. I find the pantoum one of the most difficult forms, and you have made it seem so easy. Your words flow beautifully, and the message is heart-touching. Very well done indeed.
Very nice poems. I enjoy the consistent word flow and rhythm which you express in both of them. As a non-native English speaker I’m puzzled by the phrase “Twelve years have past”. Shouldn’t it be Twelve years have passed? What am I missing?