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Molecules

Dont tend to write 'angry shouty poetry' but have been compelled to do so of late.

If we are all just molecules
Then what’s the need to be so cruel
Aren’t we all just dust and water?
What’s the need for all the slaughter?
If everything is just vibration
What’s the need for violation?
If were just carbon and bacteria
Why make people feel inferior
We are only black or white
Because of our melanocytes
And why should they be made to cry
Because they have more X or Y
Should my earnings be much better?
Because I got a different letter
Why am I warm when they are cold
Because Im young and they are old
It doesn’t make much sense at all
But its like talking to a wall
Cos as a race we’ve made up our mind
That some deserve to stay behind
While the rest of us just sit and stare
Full of shit food and full of hot air
And a joylessness that you won’t find
In many people’s ‘lesser’ mind
Maybe they know something we don’t
For while we will they simply won’t
And we are called the civilized men
What’s all this bullshit talk of Zen
I just want the latest phone
Sausage, chips and a Wonga loan
A shiny car and a well trimmed lawn
Celebrity gossip and instant porn
Just take a look I think you’ll find
It’s the blind leading the blind leading the fucking blind.

Any feedback welcomed.
Fri, 19 Jun 2015 12:46 am
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Hi Stu,
this is fun and angry at the same time.
I have analysed it. I hope you don't take offense.
This is what I found. (I used ' to indicate stress)
This poem uses a very simple rhythmic structure of four ‘beats to the bar’, which does not become too boring because the unstressed syllables vary quite a lot from " 'we are 'only 'black or 'white" to " 'full of shit 'food and 'full of hot 'air’. This might be seen by some people as NOT keeping to a rhythm, but in rap or performance this kind of variation within four beats does make it more bearable. The very last line allows an extra two stresses to finish off.
The rhyme scheme is simple couplets with paired end rhymes. Almost all the lines end with a stressed syllable, although the second, third, fourth, and seventh couplet end on an unstressed syllable, which gives the rant a sense of progression at that early stage but this disappears. The rhyme ‘ mind/ behind’ is repeated in ‘find/ mind’ and ‘find/ blind’. This may be holding the rant together, making the third repeat feel like an ending, reinforced by the extra length.
This structure should make it easy to learn by heart.
It uses the rhetorical device of asking a lot of questions, suggesting answers, presenting different viewpoints and summing up at the end with a dismissive cliché. The idea presented is that ‘we’ who are seen as civilised, hold to a belief that the disadvantaged deserve their poverty, but perhaps ‘they’ get more out of life because ‘we’ are satisfied with consumer values.
Although there is not much original thought in this rant, (I completely agree with the ideas) and it relies on easy form as well as easy ideas, it is consistent in the rhyme and rhythm, and keeps to its theme, rounding off with a simple expletive to give it a final punch.
The skills demonstrated here to find rhymes and keep to rhythm would be a good basis to branch out from this to a more adventurous form, or to use this easy structure to put over some more adventurous ideas. It’s a good start, but not a place to stay.

Fri, 10 Jul 2015 08:16 pm
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Mariette

I am taking Higher Human Biology and took your poem on its merit. It is very clever and I enjoyed the read.
Thu, 5 Nov 2015 11:22 pm
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