Okay, so – real talk here.

I’m floored by the response to this contest. I was thinking realistically we’d have four entries this time around, maybe five? But… seven. We had /seven/ entries for a contest that only ran two days. I just… I can’t… I… wow. You guys.

Anyway, sorry, I’m rambling. Because I did a derp and forgot to ask everyone for anon/nonymity preferences, unless it was specified in the PM I am going to assume anonymity and allow people to claim their entries.

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As a reminder, the prompt was awakening and the form was Shakespearean sonnet.

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This post marks the conclusion of the writing exercise. Feel free to discuss and review one another's entries. Announcements of judges' awards will come tomorrow morning, as will the start of RPGC #12, but feel free to continue the discussion even after the "proper" RPGC begins.

^{Notices two sonnets have eighteen lines instead of fourteen.
It's the quatrains.
It's the quatrains every time.}

Will work on reviews for the poetry. Thankfully I can analyse it better than I can write it. It's easier to be a critic!

I swear that on the Competition post it said "Four alternating Quatrains".

I... know nothing about poetry, so I can attempt writing it when I learned the rules, but I sure as heck can't critique it! Good thing we have McHaggis here, I suppose! XD

Edit: Ah. It says "alternating quatrains". What's "alternating"!? Should something change between the different quatrains!? Something I don't know and have definitely messed up!? AAaaaah, I'm doomed...

@PlatinumSkink Yeah, its the rhyming scheme. So it would be abab cdcd efef gg. Each letter is a rhyme, so each word rhymes on alternating lines.

@Vocab Oh. That. So it was alternating IN the quatrains, not from quatrain to quatrain.

... Phew.

Gah, screwed up with one of my rhymes in there. This is why you do not write late at night!

Side-note: playing with the format is cool if there's a reason for it. Edwin Morgan does it in his sonnets quite a bit. So you can rhyme something four times instead of twice, just gotta... have a reason.

My excuse, personally, is that I really REALLY like repetition.

Hush your face it's perfectly reasonable.

As is intentionally getting the format wrong with the flimsy excuse of "OP Said..." in order to do even more repetition.

@McHaggis ... Oh bloody hell I'm sorry. That's what /I/ get for writing the OP at 2:30 AM on four cups of coffee and a redbull. @.@ I'm sorryyyyy forgiiiiive meeeeeeee *flings self to ground sobbing*

i was struggling so hard to meet the structural requirements, that i didn't even realize there was a theme until the entries were posted this morning

oops

Alright folks!

Off my first read through, and given the fact that I totally screwed up in the OP (! >-< gj, Aria, this is why we don't write contests so late!) I've decided that every entry, in this case, is more than likely going to pass. I'll have formal reviews and such sometime this week -- and trophies, as always, if/when I'm given the contest mod toolkit (yes I know I'm like six issues of RPGC behind, but I'll get to it all. eventually)

This post concludes the "trial run" of WRPGC. A strong awakening, wouldn't you all say?

Expect RPGC#12 to begin sometime within the next twelve hours. My apologies for the delay but right now my life is slightly being consumed by the monster that is university so I'm doing my best.

I ATTEMPTED AND FAILED TO WRITE REVIEWS, I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING HELP ME I'M SCARED, BUT I WANTED TO GIVE FEEDBACK, SO *hides in corner*















I apologize if I got everything wrong and offended someone. Woah. Hahahahahaha. … … …

@PlatinumSkink

O'er is indeed one syllable, strange ain't it?

Sorry everyone, but between no sleep last night, four classes (including a chemistry lab and a band rehearsal!), tutoring, and a whole crapton of other such excuses, I seriously cannot keep my eyes open and do not trust myself to write another contest OP now. Given what happened the last time I tried while half-asleep, probably for the best.

RPGC#12 will launch as soon as I awaken, though I also have no bloody idea when that'll be.

I, um. Still would be very interested in feedback here, in case people forgot about it.

@Vocab@RomanAria Well to be fair, a sonnet is a sonnet, and that part was clear even if it was detailed incorrectly. As to not reusing rhymes...I don't think there's really a rule /against/ it? I mean, if A and D rhyme, that's not exactly a problem, just some additional rhyme. Or so my opinion is. I have to say, I had a lot of fun with this. Especially because I've been thinking about Alys a lot lately. They're all solid poems, no matter the number of lines, though I didn't actually check for meter at this point. It's a bit hard to do while running the radio. ^.^;;

@PlatinumSkink I loved my poetry classes and took a lot away from them. I also love playing with language, and what you can do with sentence structure. There's a general form, but because of how English is inflected, you can say "she went to the store" or "to the store went she", and this helps format things so that a rhyming word falls last in a line, as well as meeting the meter. I love doing it, and it (in my opinion) adds flair to a poem. Also I tend to use a slightly more formal feeling for sonnets, not entirely sure why. Possibly because iambic pentameter makes me think Shakespeare, and that style of speaking. And the strict rules make it feel elegant but also a bit stuffy? *shrug*

There are likewise words that often get syllables dropped. O'er (over) is one, as is e'er (ever). That means fore'er is forever. Every can be two syllables /or/ three (ev-ry or ev-er-y), depending on how strictly you enunciate; I used e'ery to ensure it would be read as two, because I often default to three -- though as you can see, not consistently since I used it as two earlier. x.x I actually only caught the second use of it after. *sigh*

You can absolutely remove chunks of words to fit the meter -- within reason. For example: bril'ant ((brill-yant) instead of brill-i-ant, I see "heav'n" instead of heaven a lot in music (though I find that one awkward, like it has a bit of a hiccup at the end). My guess is to'er from Dark's poem is "to her". An interesting smushing, but quite clever, I think.

Slant rhyme -- rhymes that don't /quite/ line up -- are fair game in most situations, though the rigidity of a sonnet would make me lean away from using them. There's all sorts of techniques for poetry, including splitting a word across linebreaks (which I have yet to try, but man it can be so cool if done right!)

I don't really have any specific feedback, sorry. I'm not the best when it comes to critique.