I'm doing a secret santa all this week and I want to top off the gifts with cards that have a feeling of Dr. Seuss + The Night Before Christmas. Can anybody help me?

As you hear the loud sound of ten thousand hearts' pound,

You anticipate the coming signal to charge;

You hesitate, your feet begging for the safe ground;

Your thoughts of your own possible death loom large.

As you dwell on your imminent mortality,

You wonder if it matters, old morality;

Does one really live in long eternality,

Or does one's life end in final totality?

Aye, purge from your heart any of sin's filthy leav'n;

Aye, purge from your heart all of its unholy mirth;

Prepare yourself to become an angel in heav'n;

If you live, perhaps a mortal god on the earth,

For in war men die alone and then what after -

The Savior's sweet smile or the Devil's loud laughter?

As you charge, your acquaintance is the first to die,

Crumpling as a small bird into the red-brown mud;

Earthy ground his grave forever on which to lie,

The first of many to soak the earth with their blood.

Aye, you had better take refuge behind your shield;

Yes, man, be ready to defend yourself with spear;

If you value your life, don't you even dare yield;

Be a man, and don't show any womanly fear!

War, for a nation, is truly an ugly thing,

But they say this one's all for honor of God's Kirk,

And surely not just for the vain pride of the king,

And not for the pay of that gen’ral with the smirk.

Are all vict’ries Pyrrhic if some good men have died,

Even if the win in the end goes to your side?

Blood flows all around you like that in your own veins.

(You, stay away from yonder deadly cavalry!)

Blood flows red as the Godsent flag of the old Danes.

Is this really worth half-forgotten rivalry?

The back of your mind contrasts your shining shield's crest—

The crest of a royal red roaring lion's mane—

With your dead comrades in the red dirt laid to rest,

Those of your comrades who have been senselessly slain.

The skies pour onto the death-field life-giving rain,

Falling onto the blood- and nature-reddened clay;

The tears of a nation's mothers' anguish and pain,

Tears for sons who, on the dirt, dead or dying, lay;

Come, sweet life-giving rain, and cleanse the blood-soaked earth;

Bring about, in part, at least, some of life's rebirth.

un

deux

Hello everyone,

For the second week of this knockoff series I've decided to borrow the theme of its officially-sanctioned counterpart -- "song lyrics." Songs are more numerous in older poetry than they may initially appear; most poets of any renown dabbled at least a little in them, though the "songs" so produced were generally published without accompanying music (see Byron's "Hebrew Melodies" for a notable exception). Most verse-playwrights also inserted songs into their plays to be sung on stage, with Shakespeare's "Full fathom five" and "Under the greenwood tree" being only two well-known examples.

In the absence of a musical setting by which to recognize them, poetic "songs" were historically distinguished by their jaunty rhythm -- one would never find a song written in iambic pentameter, for example, but there are plenty in iambic tetrameter and in the various anapestic meters -- as well as by their subject-matter, which, as with most modern songs, is generally either deeply emotional or subversively humourous. They also tend to be divided into "verses" of identical structure, a practice going back to the ancient Greek choral odes, though there are some that don't follow such a pattern.

As for this week's poet: Thomas Lovell Beddoes was a mid 19th-century doctor (i.e. physician) best known in literary circles for his bizarre play "Death's Jest-Book," which I once heard aptly characterized as "a funnier and more depressing version of Hamlet." (His plot and characters, though, are much weaker than his Stratfordian counterpart's.) But he was also one of the finest songwriters of his century, and I had much trouble deciding between two of his masterworks, the first a heartfelt exploration of the conflict between desire and reality, and the second an odd sneer about drunkenness rich with nihilistic humour. In the end I decided to give them both in order to show off both sides of the lyric coin, so to speak.

If you have any other old songs you'd like to share, or any thoughts on these two, by all means comment them below; I'd love to hear from you all.

Now, without further ado...

Dream-Pedlary

If there were dreams to sell,
What would you buy?
Some cost a passing bell;
Some a light sigh,
That shakes from Life’s fresh crown
Only a rose-leaf down.
If there were dreams to sell,
Merry and sad to tell,
And the crier rung the bell,
What would you buy?

A cottage lone and still,
With bowers nigh,
Shadowy, my woes to still,
Until

(POEMS)

IAMBIC OCTAMETER

"In God's image is man born"

The man is born in GOD's mirage, if man is evil, GOD is too.

This GOD designs this man, devised his hearts demise, his plan, his hand.

It's no surprises when this man despises GOD with all his heart.

// // //

TROCHIAC TETRAMETER

"Describing My Own City At Night"

Darkness veiled the pale agnostic.

Envy's wailing, urban quaking.

Fabled veering xyst rebuilding.

Greedy witch is screeching speeches.

// // //

IAMBIC PENTAMETER

"Angry Holocaust Survivor"

The Holocaust this {GOD} has caused distraughts-

This heart. Revenge is mending; hence, will I-

Depart {HIS} zealots' mortal heart to parts?

Is 'yes' the only answer? Yes! It's sure.

It's true as azure blue; assured as bloom.

// // //

ANAPESTIC TRIMETER

"Odin"

T'was this snake's desecration of trust-

That has Eden then shake at her crust.

From the pies to the fries and the mead,

When it dies, it is hunger that I feed.

O Kvasir! To the drink! To the thrusts-

Of a war will your blood I will drink!

// // //

ANAPESTIC TETRAMETER

"The Destruction of Sennacherib" - Lord Byron

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,

And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;

And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,

When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,

That host with their banners at sunset were seen:

Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown...

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast...

And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still!”

(QUOTES)

This is not your grave but you are welcomed in it.

I...? I... Am a monument... To all your sins.

This one is machine and nerve, and has its mind concluded. This one is but flesh and faith, and is the more deluded.

There is much talk and I have listened, through rock and metal and time. Now I shall talk, and you shall listen.

Your prophets have promised you freedom from a doomed existence, but you will find no salvation on this ring.

If you will not hear the truth then I will show it to you.

Fate had us meet as foes, but this ring shall make us brothers!

We exist together now, two corpses in one grave.

Silence fills the empty grave; now that I have come, though my mind is not at rest as for questions linger on.

Do not be afraid, I am peace, I am salvation.

I am a timeless chorus. Join your voice with mine, and sing victory everlasting.

Lies for the weak! Beac

DISCLAIMER: The advice and tips I'll give in this post are based on my personal experience, as well as some redditors who felt like poetry has helped them improve their writing. I will not guarantee that they will help you. If you have questions, criticism, or something to add, let me know in the comments or DM me. For the mods: I didn't know whether this qualifies as Advice or Resource, so if the Flair is incorrect, please let me know.

Foreword

Due to the traction my comment about improving one's prose using the fine art of poetry gained, I decided to dedicate a post to the topic, since it appears to have helped some of those who saw it. In this post, I will write about what poetry has to do with prose, how it works in general, as well as walk you through the basics of creating poetry yourself. This is not a 'just read' or 'just write smh' post. I will go into as much detail as I feel I can without making this overbearing or boring. A warning for poetry fans, this is extremely simplified, so if you feel like I've personally insulted you, and sense the urge to complain in a non-constructive, destructive manner, please direct your complaints literally anywhere else. This post is supposed to help people, if you're out for thread-PvP, go to a politics sub.

Table of contents:

1. What counts as poetry?
2. How poetry can improve prose
3. How rhythm is created
4. Feet
5. Meters
6. Easy poetry forms to get started
7. More advanced forms
8. A form for writing masochists
9. Helpful tools and websites
10. Further reading

1. What counts as poetry?

You may feel like skipping this part, as it should be obvious what poetry is, but I assure you, it's not as clear cut as most people might think it is. Does it have to rhyme? Do I have to write enigmatically extravagant English? Is poetry not harder to write? The answer to all of these questions (and more) is 'no'.

From the very basic to the most advanced forms of poetry, your creativity can flow freely. Be it with rhymes, colorful descriptions, or merely rhythmic, lo-fi word-beats. There is so much more to poetry than what old, snarky, Mrs. Fitzgerald in high school taught you when she force-fed Shakespeare's Hamlet to you. (I know how you feel, I have personally been force-fed Hamlet, as well as Faust, Oedipus Rex and *Wilhelm Te

Dislaimer: This is gonna get... academic.

Further Disclaimer: I'm no poet, but I remember a bit from school. I'd love to be corrected on any of this by someone who knows what they're talking about.

I feel like there are some problems with the Rime of the Frostmaiden (poem, not module) that I want to try to address:

1. Basic rhyme scheme: The poem rhymes a b a b, c d c d and so on for the duration. This can be fine, but I wasn't able to find any internal rhyme, alliteration, or other devices to add interest.

2. Simplistic rhyme choice: This differs from the above, but together they make the whole thing feel juvenile. Nearly every rhyme is a one-syllable word on both ends (eg: dread-dead, white-night, all-wall).

3. Bad rhythm discipline: The meter for the poem is MOSTLY "Common Meter", which means four-line stanzas with an iambic rhythm (weak STRONG weak STRONG) that alternate between Tetrameter (four beats) and Trimeter (three beats). So far so good, if a little boring; it's certainly very hymn-like. The verse takes a lot of liberties -- sometimes cutting out the first weak beat, othertimes adding an extra weak beat. Again this is fine: you can substitute an anapest (weak weak STRONG) for an iamb (weak STRONG), but it happens so often it really muddies the water. Which brings me to the most important problem:

4. Random Meter Changes?: The third stanza and the first half of the sixth stanza don't seem to be Iambic at all. They certainly aren't common verse. It seems like anapestic dimeter maybe (weak weak STRONG weak weak STRONG), but some of the lines in stanza three seem more like Strong Strong Weak! I had to google what the hell that's called: antibacchius.

Before I start trying to fix up this poem, is there anyone here who's actually got some expertise who can either tell me I'm right OR tell me to stfu and go back to my day job?

This poem is supposed to be a BIG set piece. Some poor player is gonna have to read it aloud in front of the glacier at some point, and I'd really like for it to not be a patty-cake-sound chore.

When I read the first three lines of T.S. Eliot's J Alfred Pufrock, the first two lines feel very regal in an assured, swaying kind of way, at least to me, but the third line feels quite dissonant. I am trying to figure out why this is and explain in in a technical way in my essay.

Would I be correct in surmising that these first two lines are iambic meter with anapests used as substitutions in places? If I understand correctly, iambic meter is created by combining iambs, or two-syllable units with more stress on the second syllable, and sometimes anapests are used as well, which have two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed:

Let us go / then, you / and I ---> (anapest / iamb/ iamb/ ---> iambic trimeter?)

When the eve- / ning is spread /out a-gainst / the sky ---> (anapest / anapest/ anapest/ iamb ---> iambic tetrameter?)

The third line seems purposefully dissonant to me:

Like a pat-ient eth-er-ised u-pon a **tab-**le

The stress seems to come on parts of words that prevent the line from swaying rhythmically like the first two. It feels like you have to abruptly pronounce that line as if it were in prose rather than verse. I'm not sure if there is a word for that or not.

Edit: Not sure why it's placing asterisks on ''table.''

#How to make things Bold, italics, strike through, etc. on mobile

Directions for Mobile Editing and Poem Formatting

First off, here’s directions for if you don’t know how to edit: If you are on the post: in the top right corner of your phone there should be three dots. You click on the three dots and a new thing will pop up. There will be many options, you want to click on “Edit post” when you are done, click the word “done.”

Heres the directions for formatting: Put in your first line. Click return once, then a second time. Put in your next line (Repeat). When you want to show a change in stanza click return twice again, then add a period, dash, slant, or basically any punctuation you want. After you put in the punctuation press return twice again.

Another way to format (without ./-) is to put the letters and numbers & # x 2 0 0 B ; without any of the spaces. This will add a new stanza.

Places to Submit

Places to Submit without having to review:

r/Poems

r/JustPoetry

r/creativewriting

r/poem_a_day

r/poetryreading

r/Poet

r/haiku

Places to Submit with Review:

r/OCPoetry

r/poetry_critics

Need help with what to say in a review?

Give a Compliment

I like it!

Beautiful job!

You’ve done amazing!

Loving this vibe!

Talk about your favorite part

A line in the poem

Title of the work

If there’s repetition, alliteration, allusion, metaphors, similes, caesura, diction, end-stop lines, imagery, rhymes, near rhymes, onomatopoeia, paradox, and/or good syntax

Critique (if needed)

Could be a small grammatical error

Maybe a different word will sound better in a spot

Should add something to emphasize a point

If something needs further clarification

End with a positive remark

Thank you for sharing!

I hope to read some of your work again!

Terms you may want to know

**Sources: my own knowledge and Public.WSU.edu

Enjambment:

• the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.

First person is the I/we perspective. Second person is the you perspective. Third person is the he/she/it/they perspective.

Line: one sentence

Couplet: 2 lines put together

Stanza: a group of line usually with a recurring metric use l, separated by a line break

Repetition:

Hey OCPoetry community! My name is Picnic, and I am the newest moderator of our splendid subreddit. To introduce myself, I thought I’d talk about a seemingly forgotten element of poetry—meter!

What is Meter?

In English poetry, meter is one of the most traditional ways of establishing rhythm. It is the particular arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables in the line of a poem.

But Picnic, it’s 2021! Who cares about dusty, boring metrical poetry anymore?

I understand. Much to my dismay, we’re no longer in Renaissance England, and contemporary poetry has mostly moved beyond strictly structured sonnets and painstakingly precise prosody. However, there are still critical benefits to understanding the basics of poetic meter. So, let’s get into it!

The Poetic Foot

Since a poem’s meter is determined by its specific arrangement of syllables, it’s important to know the ways in which syllables can be arranged. A foot is a unit of measurement in poetry that includes stressed and unstressed syllables. The four most common poetic feet are iambs, trochees, anapests, and dactyls.

An iamb is a foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable: da DUM. The word “belong” is a natural iamb—its stress falling on the second syllable.

A trochee consists of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed: DUM da. The word “hobbit” is a natural trochee.

An anapest consists of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed: da da DUM. The word “comprehend” is a natural anapest—its primary stress falling on the last syllable.

A dactyl consists of a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed: DUM da da. The word “buffalo” is a natural dactyl.

Terminology

If a line is written in iambs, then its meter is said to be iambic; if trochees, then trochaic; if anapests, then anapestic; if dactyls, then dactylic. However, there is also a quantitative aspect to determining meter. The number of times a poetic foot is repeated in a line dictates the length of the meter.

One foot = monometer

Two feet = dimeter

Three feet = trimeter

Four feet = tetrameter

Five feet = pentameter

Six feet = hexameter

Seven feet = heptameter

Eight feet = octameter

Nine feet = please don’t write a line this long

So if a line is comprised of four iambs,

###Good morning, Hub! Nova here — your friendly, neighborhood editor.

Happy Teaching Tuesday, everyone!

 

Today’s lesson is going to be about meter and rhythm in poetry. Are you all as excited as I am?

 

####Meter: Not Just a Unit of Measurement

Disclaimer: When we talk about meter, we are talking about it in regards to poetry that has a set form and structure. Free verse does not fall into this category. Free verse can have meter, of course, but it sort of just does whatever it wants.

 

Meter, as we mentioned last week, is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of verse. However, meter doesn’t only happen in poetry — it happens in everything we say and write!

All words have stressed and unstressed syllables in them. Our prose has its own rhythm and cadence, same as our speech. But this is super important in poetry! The pattern of syllables (or, to use our handy dandy vocab, the meter) creates a flow that makes poetry feel how it’s supposed to.

Good poetry has a rising and falling feel to it, as well as a patterned rhythm. Think about rap music. The lyrics have a musical quality about them that would exist even without the background beat! Ideally, non-lyrical poetry should have this same sort of musicality.

The most common meter in English poetry is called accentual-syllabic. This just means that the meter is determined by the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. There can be varying amounts of stresses and unstresses, but the amount of syllables remains the same (or nearly the same).

 

Look at Edgar Allan Poe’s “To One in Paradise,” for instance (emphasis mine to point out the stressed syllables):

> And all my days are trances, (7)

> And all my nightly dreams (6)

> Are where thy grey eye glances, (7)

> And where thy footstep gleams (6)

 

Each line here goes between six and seven syllables and alternates between stressed and unstressed accents. This creates a rhythmic pattern that is pleasing to the ear.

But do you find yourself unable to really differentiate between stressed and unstressed syllables? It is difficult at first, I will admit. It’s something that you have to practice and train your ear to notice. However, to help y’all out, I have this wonderful video that really helped me when I was learning, and I hop

This ongoing mystery has been posted a few times at this sub (most recently here) and at r/unresolvedmysteries.

The question, however, remains: who wrote “The Night Before Christmas”?

The Troy, New York, Sentinel first published the poem under the title “A Visit from St. Nicholas” in 1823. It had been sent to the paper anonymously.

A poetry collection credited General Theological Seminary professor Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863) with the poem in 1837, and Moore took credit for the poem in 1844. After that, Moore wrote out the poem for friends multiple times.

Moore is usually credited as the writer.

The descendants of Henry Livingston, Jr. (1748-1828), however, claim that he wrote the poem. As early as 1859, Livingston’s children argued that their father read them the poem around 1807. They claimed to have found his manuscript in 1828—but later said it was destroyed in a house fire. One pro-Livingston site proposes that a governess took a copy of Livingston’s poem and left it with Moore. Their claim wasn’t published, however, until 1920.

Vassar College English professor and textual analyst Donald Wayne Foster analyzed the poem in a chapter of his book Author Unknown (2000) and argued that Livingston was the most likely author.

In response, UMass Amherst history professor Stephen Nissenbaum wrote an article criticizing Foster’s analysis and arguing that Moore wrote the poem. Historian Seth Keller also wrote an excellent summary of the case in which he supports Moore’s authorship.

In 2016, University of Auckland English literature professor MacDonald P. Jackson wrote what is to my knowledge the most recent book on the subject (Who Wrote ‘The Night Before Christmas’?), for which he analyzed stylistics and phonemics by computer analysis. He supports Livingston as author.

So that’s the case as it stands. It’s one of those infuriating little mysteries that seem to have only two possibilities: either Moore wrote it or Livingston did. (God help us if someone else wrote it!)

I think

I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.

Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.

The doctor says it terminal.

Alot of great jokes get posted here! However just because you have a joke, doesn't mean it's a dad joke.

THIS IS NOT ABOUT NSFW, THIS IS ABOUT LONG JOKES, BLONDE JOKES, SEXUAL JOKES, KNOCK KNOCK JOKES, POLITICAL JOKES, ETC BEING POSTED IN A DAD JOKE SUB

Try telling these sexual jokes that get posted here, to your kid and see how your spouse likes it.. if that goes well, Try telling one of your friends kid about your sex life being like Coca cola, first it was normal, than light and now zero , and see if the parents are OK with you telling their kid the "dad joke"

I'm not even referencing the NSFW, I'm saying Dad jokes are corny, and sometimes painful, not sexual

So check out r/jokes for all types of jokes

r/unclejokes for dirty jokes

r/3amjokes for real weird and alot of OC

r/cleandadjokes If your really sick of seeing not dad jokes in r/dadjokes

Punchline !

Edit: this is not a post about NSFW , This is about jokes, knock knock jokes, blonde jokes, political jokes etc being posted in a dad joke sub

Edit 2: don't touch the thermostat

Do your worst!

How the hell am I suppose to know when it’s raining in Sweden?

Mathematical puns makes me number

We told her she can lean on us for support. Although, we are going to have to change her driver's license, her height is going down by a foot. I don't want to go too far out on a limb here but it better not be a hack job.

Ants don’t even have the concept fathers, let alone a good dad joke. Keep r/ants out of my r/dadjokes.

But no, seriously. I understand rule 7 is great to have intelligent discussion, but sometimes it feels like 1 in 10 posts here is someone getting upset about the jokes on this sub. Let the mods deal with it, they regulate the sub.

They were cooked in Greece.

I'm surprised it hasn't decade.

He lost May

Now that I listen to albums, I hardly ever leave the house.

Don't you know a good pun is its own reword?

Two muffins are in an oven, one muffin looks at the other and says "is it just me, or is it hot in here?"

Then the other muffin says "AHH, TALKING MUFFIN!!!"

For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.

I said "hey look, an escaPEA"

No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!

Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂

It really does, I swear!

And now I’m cannelloni

Has anyone else noticed that during Felurian's story of how Jax stole the moon that she is constantly rhyming with herself? > most fae are sly and subtle folk who step as soft as chimney smoke
>while she is full you may still laugh, but know there is a darker half
Actually, the whole chapter is full of rhyming.
Edit: The Chapter is "The Ever-Moving Moon" in The Wise Man's Fear

*Note that this is the exact same guide as the one in r/poetry_critics. I was asked to add it here too.

Introduction

Sonnets are a type of poem that follow very strict rules, and while you may ask yourself "why would I want to do that?", well it's very rewarding to know that even with all of the rules and restrictions you can make an awesome poem. Being forced to confine to syllable counts and rhyme schemes forces us poets to get very creative in finding ways to get our point across and I think it's a wonderful learning experience.

What is a sonnet?

You mean other than painful? A sonnet is the general term used for a 14-line poem that consists of a specific rhyme scheme and meter. Due to the meter it is read in ("iambic pentameter") there is 10 syllables per line, although you will find the occasional 9 or 11 syllable outlier.

Types of Sonnets:

There are a few different types of sonnets, but each follow the rule of 14 lines and 10 syllables per line. The difference is the rhyme scheme and stanza breaks. There are 4 main types of sonnets, which I will outline below. As with anything, the art has evolved and there are tons of modernized subtypes, but I'm only going to outline the original 4, or else we'd be here for ages.

The first one I will outline has the most history and thus is a decent bit longer than the others, but in order of appearance:

Petrarchan Sonnet

Shakespearean Sonnet

Spenserian Sonnet

Miltonic Sonnet

History

The word "sonnet" is derived from the the Italian word "sonetto" which is derived form the Latin word "suono", meaning sound. As you'd expect, the origins are Italian. The creation of the sonnet is attributed to Giacomo da Lentini, a 13th century lyrical poet who wrote poetry in the "Sicilian dialect". If you do not know, Sicily is the Island found in Southern Italy. It is still a part of Italy. (In fact, I'm half Sicilian, my grandparents immigrated from there!)

Although he is the creator of sonnets, Lentini is not the namesake of the earliest type of sonnet. That goes to Francesco Petrarch, who was considered the "perfecter of the form"

Fast forward to a bit to Elizabethen era England (1558 - 1603) where the Petrarchan sonnet evolved to become the next three forms: Shakespearean, Spenserian and Miltonic.

After being introduced to England by Sir Thomas Wyatt in the early 16th century, the Petrarchan sonnet was still being actively used throughout the entire Elizabethen era, potentially

Because she wanted to see the task manager.

But that’s comparing apples to oranges

And boy are my arms legs.

Put it on my bill

Heard they've been doing some shady business.

but then I remembered it was ground this morning.

Edit: Thank you guys for the awards, they're much nicer than the cardboard sleeve I've been using and reassures me that my jokes aren't stale

Edit 2: I have already been made aware that Men In Black 3 has told a version of this joke before. If the joke is not new to you, please enjoy any of the single origin puns in the comments

Points for a Beginning Poem Writer

Directions for Mobile Editing and Poem Formatting

First off, here’s directions for if you don’t know how to edit: If you are on the post: in the top right corner of your phone there should be three dots. You click on the three dots and a new thing will pop up. There will be many options, you want to click on “Edit post” when you are done, click the word “done.”

Heres the directions for formatting: Put in your first line. Click return once, then a second time. Put in your next line (Repeat). When you want to show a change in stanza click return twice again, then add a period, dash, slant, or basically any punctuation you want. After you put in the punctuation press return twice again.

Places to Submit

Places to Submit without having to review:

r/Poems

r/JustPoetry

r/creativewriting

r/poem_a_day

r/poetryreading

r/Poet

r/haiku

Places to Submit with Review:

r/OCPoetry

r/poetry_critics

Need help with what to say in a review?

Give a Compliment

I like it!

Beautiful job!

You’ve done amazing!

Loving this vibe!

Talk about your favorite part

A line in the poem

Title of the work

If there’s repetition, alliteration, allusion, metaphors, similes, caesura, diction, end-stop lines, imagery, rhymes, near rhymes, onomatopoeia, paradox, and/or good syntax

Critique (if needed)

Could be a small grammatical error

Maybe a different work will sound better in a spot

Should add something to emphasize a point

If something needs further clarification

End with a positive remark

Thank you for sharing!

I hope to read some of your work again!

Here are some Terms

(Sorry for possible bad formatting in this section)

Enjambment:

• the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.

First person is the I/we perspective. Second person is the you perspective. Third person is the he/she/it/they perspective.

Line: one sentence

Couplet: 2 lines put together

Stanza: a group of line usually with a recurring metric use l, separated by a line break

Repetition:

• repeating something multiple times

Poetry Types:

• Free Style - a poem with no specific metric use in mind when creating it. Could be all of the place. Has no guidelines.
• Haiku - 5/7/5 syllable pattern or a more uncommon 3/5/3 syllable pattern.

Alliteration: The repetition of identical consonant sounds, most often the sounds beginning words, in close proximity. Examp

This ongoing mystery has been posted a few times at this sub and at r/nonmurdermysteries.

The question, however, remains: who wrote “The Night Before Christmas”?

The Troy, New York, Sentinel first published the poem under the title “A Visit from St. Nicholas” in 1823. It had been sent to the paper anonymously.

A poetry collection credited General Theological Seminary professor Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863) with the poem in 1837, and Moore took credit for the poem in 1844. After that, Moore wrote out the poem for friends multiple times.

Ever since, Moore has been credited as the writer.

The descendants of Henry Livingston, Jr. (1748-1828), however, claim that he wrote the poem. As early as 1859, Livingston’s children said that their father read them the poem around 1807. They claimed to have found his manuscript in 1828—but later said it was destroyed in a house fire. One pro-Livingston site proposes that a governess took a copy of Livingston’s poem and left it with Moore. Their claim wasn’t published, however, until 1920.

Vassar College English professor and textual analyst Donald Wayne Foster analyzed the poem in a chapter of his book Author Unknown (2000) and argued that Livingston was the most likely author.

In response, UMass Amherst history professor Stephen Nissenbaum wrote an article criticizing Foster’s analysis and arguing that Moore wrote the poem. Historian Seth Keller also wrote an excellent summary of the case in which he supports Moore’s authorship.

In 2016, University of Auckland English literature professor MacDonald P. Jackson wrote what is to my knowledge the most recent book on the subject (Who Wrote ‘The Night Before Christmas’?), for which he analyzed stylistics and phonemics by computer analysis. He supports Livingston as author.

So that’s the case as it stands. It’s one of those infuriating little mysteries that seem to have only two possibilities: either Moore wrote it or Livingston did. (God help us if someone else wrote it!)

I think the evidence leans towards Moore as author. The Livingston story seems to lack any hard evidence, Moore’s writing the poe