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Freak Storm Smash

 Last night heard bull-frogs whistling in the dark;

House top blown off, landed in Rockrose Park;

Winds pound glass panel like a steel-pan band;

Flash floods; pain and gore the scene in Bayland;

Strong winds broke doors, windows; hell on the loose;

All hearts grief for the death of old James Bruce;

Atlantic storms three months away, they say;

Global warming rides the world on its sleigh;

Storm with no name caused plane to land in tree;

Rain, wind, lightning soaked body wear with pee;

Last ad aired was “Husbands Solar Power”

Break, break, break, and thunder got much louder.

 “Freak Storm Smash” is a weather poem. The imagery in any weather poem incorporates aspect of the weather and its impact on climatic conditions, which may be pleasurable or painful. Weather is what meteorologist predicts each day about the temperature, cloudiness, humidity, and whether a storm, tornado or hurricane is brewing and the approximate time the disaster will make landfall. Weather is the sum total of atmospheric events that happen each day and is not the same everywhere because of the effects of the variants in climate. The difference between weather and climate is that climate is the average weather in a place over many years, while the weather can change in just a few hours. Climate takes hundred, thousands and even years to change. In this 21^st century our climate is under must stress because of mankind’s behavior on the environment.

This poem has a closed or fixed form with quatrains, rhyming pattern and meter measures 5 feet. More stressed syllables than unstressed syllables are in these pentameter verses as revealed in the scansion of the poem where the stressed syllables are embolden as shown below:

Freak Storm Smash

Last night heard bull-frogs whistling in the dark;

House top blown off, landed in Rockrose Park;

Winds pound glass panel like a steel-pan band;

Flash floods, pain and gore the scene in Bayland;

Strong winds broke doors, windows; hell on the loose;

All hearts grief for the death of old James Bruce;

Atlantic storms three months away, they say;

Global warming rides the world on its sleigh;

Storm with no name caused plane to land in tree;

Rain, wind, lightning soaked body wear with pee;

Last ad aired was Husbands solar power

Break, break, break, and thunder got much louder.

The verses in “Freak Storm Smash” are written in qualitative or accentual-syllabic verse in English Language poetry where the iambic foot is the dominate type found in English versification. However, the iambic foot is scarcely used in this poem; hence the reason why these verses are not described as iambic pentameter verses and why these verses do not have a monotonous rhythm as is the case if the iambic foot is used exclusively in verses. This non-monotonous rhythmic beat in this poem is achieved by the infusion of other foot types as revealed in the poem’s scansion below; however, the speed in this poem is very slow being influenced by the various metrical feet used in the verses. The use of more stressed syllables than unstressed syllables has allowed for the variations in the poem’s rhythmic speed. Also the verses are long, for they measure 5 feet. English Language poetry seldom has verses that go beyond 5 feet.  Long verses in a poem will slow down the speed of the rhythm and add more syllables than poems with slow speed in the rhythm. Also, when fewer words are used in the verse they do increase the speed (not the case in the poem “Freak Storm Smash”).

Stanza 1

Stanza 2

Stanza 3

 Now what we must bear in mind is that rhythm is the flow of words on the page. It is the beat heard when a poem is read; rhythm includes some pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, which create a pattern of sound. Fixed form poetry uses several techniques to add rhythm. These include verse length, meter, repetition or refrain. One should look at rhythm as the variations of speed in which a poem is likely to be read. This speed is influenced particularly by end-stopped verses, enjambment, caesura, catenation, pauses, vowel length, consonant clusters, modulation, elisions and expansions.

It must be acknowledge that the slow speed of the rhythm in this poem “Freak Storm Smash” compliments the painful imagery that defines this sad poem.

© Paterika Hengreaves

June 30, 2011/Maycocks, St Lucy, Barbados