The subject this week for my writing group is to write a parody of a well know poem. Here is mine.
Sea Fever
[Apologies to John Masefield]
I must go down to the sea again, to the dirty sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a Greenpeace ship and a cause to sail her by;
And the oil slick and the dead fish and the oiled gulls drowning;
And a green scum on the sea’s face and a poisonous dawn breaking.
*
I must go down to the sea again to rescue the beached whales;
Most are covered in oily sludge so our futile rescue fails;
And all I ask is a clean-up plan and a white surf flying,
And a pure spray and dolphins leaping and bright gannets diving.
*
I must go down to the sea again and offer up a prayer
For the dolphins caught in plastic nets and seals gasping for air.
And all I ask is a global plan to honour life on earth;
To work together for a green vision and a glorious new birth.
There were a couple of problems with the rhyming that kind of distracted from the poem (prayer, air), but lovely nonetheless 🙂
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Thanks Maria! ‘Lovely’? 😉
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If we must be picky, struggling and flying don’t quite work, although I think prayer and air are fine You could also take out the ‘all’ before beached whales.
However, the whole poem is thoughtful and appropriate and I felt the passion in it.
Masefield’s poem used to be read out loud in competitions and this would be ideal,too. as a contrast. One can feel the rhythm, like pounding surf.
What a great idea. I’ll suggest it at our next writing group meeting.
Thanks, Julie.
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Thanks Julie. I’ll have a look at those dodgy rhymes. 😉
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Try as I might, I couldn’t get John Ireland’s setting of ‘Sea Fever’ out of my interior ear while I was first reading your parody! https://youtu.be/b4NUJRpxQbY It’s such a marvelous song.
On second reading, I had to go into Meta-I to get the eco-references which I then appreciated. It all seemed well done to me.
Try Jamie Dedes for a regular poetry prompt on Wednesdays – I just started posting to her WordPress site. You’ll find it in ‘Reader’! 🙂
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Thanks Colin – I see the theme for June is Environmental – I’ll see what I have!
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