Questioned/Under fire

[HopperWolf]

3 hours and what duties have I?

Plenty, fair people, and I do them fully,

Though you do not know them, or me,

Still you lash me blindly.

And did I whimper? Not so.

Well, let me put your minds at ease,

‘Lest guilt should play upon them.

That I think less of you too,

When I hear your barbs in others’ mouths

But bite back my own words – dark and foul,

Even as I think of how

Your words have found their mark.

[Quincunx]

Very jagged. The form that comes and goes is too uneven for me to comment upon. If I chop off the first line, the poem talks about backbiting. If I take the first four lines, you're sitting at an oral examination. If I focus on the center of the poem, people are copying words they have no right to use. Don't understand why you italicized 'play' in any reading.

[Mira]

Personaly I like the jagged form. I get an impression of either rage or frustration, where the speaker is to unstable to put his thoughts into good order. If this was read out loud I think it would get louder until the last couple lines, where it would grow quite soft, as the speaker regains their composure.

[Quincunx]

That does change it. I read without sound usually.

[HopperWolf]

Mira, pretty much spot on there. I felt very much like that when I wrote it too.

 

Quin, I know what you mean, it's because the instance I'm relating is a bit too specific. think people mouthing off behind your back. The barbs in others' mouths is you hearing it from someone else. Play is italicized because I wanted to emphasise the sarcasm. I know the use of the word play instead of pray or similar should be enough but I wanted to transfer the bitterness.

 

Most of my later works are written with reading aloud in mind. Something I got interested in through reading Shakespeare and my favourite poet, Alexander Pope.