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 21st 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
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