Oh, the joys of writing in iambic pentameter. I just could not and could not get started on my blank verse poem. I had a few ideas that might have been good but I could not commit them to paper (well to Word). When I finally started writing tonight I spent probably a good 20-30 minutes trying to finish the first line (got stuck in the middle). By the end, I think I may have actually been getting a bit of a feel for how to write iambic pentameter (or maybe I was just tired so my brain thought I was writing iambic pentameter, who knows :P). Seeing as I have to 'workshop' this poem in class tomorrow anyway, I thought I'd share it with my readers as well. It's still a first draft (the final draft isn't due till end of term) and I imagine it'll undergo major revision by that point but I think it's kind of cute. I shall leave it to you, the reader, to decide for yourself though:

A sudden shriek provokes the warrior
to action. Gripped by vile noise he cannot
locate, the warrior moves dazedly
as if enchanted. ‘Ah!’, he cries, having
established where the beast dwelt. Jumping up
he stabs the foul monster, to no effect.
Desperately, he grapples with the beast
probing for a weak point. A click followed
by silence tells him victory is his.
Contented, he goes back to sleep once more.

So that's the poem. Remember this is my first attempt to write in iambic pentameter (or to write a 'real' formal poem of any kind) so please be gentle with criticism. You wouldn't want to crush my extremely fragile self-confidence when it comes to poetry writing. :P Also, if you don't get it right away, try reading it again. The beast isn't explictly explained but it should be fairly obvious (perhaps even too obvious, I'm not really sure as it's hard to gauge that sort of thing when you write it yourself).

Anyhoo, It's 3:40 AM and I have to be up far too soon for my liking so I had best wrap this up.

Banned Word of the Day: left