return to content catalog »

"The Written Word" by bsong

A poem about inspiration,and the feelings of an author towards his writing. The poem is a description and story of my own experience. I have stayed up many long nights trying to fall asleep, only to get up and write for hours. I would lie awake, thinking about the world, my life, and the girl I love. It will always remain one of the greatest and most stressful times in my life.

Category: Contests / February Poetry Contest

Tags: Poetry, Inspiration, Archaic

You can do an inline review of this work in the review tab.

The Written Word

 

The writer writes not what he wishes

His skill, not unleashed by his own decree

Is to write what is willed, not what is wanted

His body the vessel, but never the source.

The hand that writes fervently,

And the mind that toils endlessly

Are possessions of a will he does not own

His rash pen strokes, that dance across the page

Revealing a work the writer knows well

Yet knows he could never create.

 

For the writer’s words are not composed

They are simply realized, and set free

They spring forth with sudden clarity,

The product of some sleepless night.

His piecemeal lines and eager prose

His faulty grammar and manic diction

Created in the dead of night,

The end result of restless thoughts

And stirring heart.

 

The voice of night that calls upon passions

Raises the dead to bring forth the living

The thoughtful darkness causes light to dawn,

A light that shines and insists to be written

Lest its cries be lost, and forever forgotten

Like a desperate specter, it calls till he heeds it.

 

Midnight sessions of frantic writing

Exhaust, but enlighten

Bring forth thoughts never seen during day.

The writer as he stirs in his unstill sleep,

can spy the sculpture still clad in marble.

The written word demands to be written.




* login or signup to post your review

Category Name: My Thoughts

I didn’t care for this poem at all. It lacked originality, purpose, good word choice, or was otherwise uninteresting. This poem was okay. It would have been better if the poet had given the theme, word choice, or form more careful thought. This poem was great. The form and word choice seemed natural and added to the main idea the poet was putting across.

This section is for overall comments and general ideas. The score should reflect how much you enjoyed the poem.

Category Name: Theme / Subject Matter

The poet does little to make the theme or subject matter seem important to me. There are some cool things about the way the theme or subject matter is handled, but it could use more originality or clarity. The poem makes the subject matter new and exciting. Even if the subject matter is ordinary, the poet gives it a new angle.

Is the subject or theme poetry “worthy?” Is it original? Is the subject treated in such a way that makes it interesting, funny, creative, beautiful, surprising, enlightening or otherwise worthwhile? Ordinary subjects make for great poetry if they are treated in an original way, and great subjects make for bad poetry if they are just like every other poem written about it.

Category Name: Word Choice

The words chosen for this poem are dull, contrived, or hastily chosen. The words seem almost right, but there may be some wrenching or some words that don’t quite fit into the overall idea. The words choice is great. The words seem exactly right to convey the theme. They are beautifully or creatively chosen, surprising or exciting.

Poetry is language in its most concentrated form. More so than in any other type of literature, this requires the poet to carefully choose each word. Do the words chosen convey a specific intention, feeling or purpose? Do they feel deliberate but natural, or do the feel forced, awkward, or hasty?

Category Name: Form & Structure

This poem seemed spewed onto the page without any thought given to form of any kind. The poem has been thought out, but doesn’t quite fit the form or seems a little forced or unnatural in some places. The poem naturally conforms to the form, or the free verse takes meter, enjambment, etc. into consideration in an effective way.

Form is the defining structure of a genre or type. Does the poem follow a predefined form (sonnet, haiku, villanelle, ballad, etc)? If so, does it conform to the rules of the form (meter, rhyme, syllable count, etc)? If the poem does not follow a form, does it make sense not to? Is there something that differentiates the poem from prose?

Category Name: Mechanics

The poet seems to have taken little or no thought for the punctuation in this poem. The poet has some really interesting things going on with the punctuation or line length, but it could be more exciting or surprising, or it could be scaled back to be less distracting. The punctuation compliments and adds to the meaning of the poem’s words or theme. It is deliberate and well thought out.

Punctuation (or lack there of), line breaks, enjambment, capitalization, lineation, etc. Not everyone can be e.e. cummings and eschew all punctuation and convention of line, but poetry doesn’t always need to follow strict grammar rules either, as long as whatever punctuation is or is not used adds to the overall idea of the poem.

Inline comments are the most helpful and important aspects of your review.

Click on a paragraph or highlight text from the paragraph to provide inline comments. While detailed grammar correction is welcome, the purpose of inline commenting is to spark the author's creativity. This is best done by expressing feelings, questions, and concerns you have about the story while you are reading.

1. The Written Word

2.  

3. The writer writes not what he wishes

4. His skill, not unleashed by his own decree

5. Is to write what is willed, not what is wanted

6. His body the vessel, but never the source.

7. The hand that writes fervently,

8. And the mind that toils endlessly

9. Are possessions of a will he does not own

10. His rash pen strokes, that dance across the page

11. Revealing a work the writer knows well

12. Yet knows he could never create.

13.  

14. For the writer’s words are not composed

15. They are simply realized, and set free

16. They spring forth with sudden clarity,

17. The product of some sleepless night.

18. His piecemeal lines and eager prose

19. His faulty grammar and manic diction

20. Created in the dead of night,

21. The end result of restless thoughts

22. And stirring heart.

23.  

24. The voice of night that calls upon passions

25. Raises the dead to bring forth the living

26. The thoughtful darkness causes light to dawn,

27. A light that shines and insists to be written

28. Lest its cries be lost, and forever forgotten

29. Like a desperate specter, it calls till he heeds it.

30.  

31. Midnight sessions of frantic writing

32. Exhaust, but enlighten

33. Bring forth thoughts never seen during day.

34. The writer as he stirs in his unstill sleep,

35. can spy the sculpture still clad in marble.

36. The written word demands to be written.

37.

38.

39.

Reviews that have been completed within the last 30 days

  • There are no reviews for this item.