What stanzas did you like most, which stanzas confused you?
You don't have to answer all I asked. At least one thing.
Tell me what you think of it, what it represents, what it's referring to, etc., or if you think it's horrible.
Sea Lullaby
by Elinor Wylie
The old moon is tarnished
With smoke of the flood,
The dead leaves are varnished
With color like blood,
A treacherous smiler
With teeth white as milk,
A savage beguiler
In sheathings of silk,
The sea creeps to pillage,
She leaps on her prey;
A child of the village
Was murdered today.
She came up to meet him
In a smooth golden cloak,
She choked him and beat him
To death, for a joke.
Her bright locks were tangled,
She shouted for joy,
With one hand she strangled
A strong little boy.
Now in silence she lingers
Beside him all night
To wash her long fingers
In silvery light.
-End.
----
I liked this stanza:
QUOTE
The old moon is tarnished
With smoke of the flood,
The dead leaves are varnished
With color like blood,
With smoke of the flood,
The dead leaves are varnished
With color like blood,
I liked the word flow and the way it sounded.
The poem is describing a death, obviously, but I was a bit confused at times.
But my thinking is it's describing a drowning:
QUOTE
The sea creeps to pillage,
She leaps on her prey;
A child of the village
Was murdered today.
She leaps on her prey;
A child of the village
Was murdered today.
Using metaphor to describe the sea taking the boy in the water.
QUOTE
Now in silence she lingers
Beside him all night
To wash her long fingers
In silvery light.
Beside him all night
To wash her long fingers
In silvery light.
These quotes represent the sea taking a person's life by a drowning.
I thought this was well written, it made me think, and the way it describes the death, as if it was homicide, when it was a body of water taking a little boys life.
Your thoughts?