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Everything @Northerner and @perfectfifths said! It can also depend on what genre you’re writing, what kind of resources you use, how much research you do…
Historical: This genre usually has a lot of research to make it period accurate, so a lot of authors include works cited as a kind of… credentials? Proof they did their research and know what they’re talking about, and some readers expect some kind of references even if they are arranged in a formal bibliography.
Red Falcons of Tremoine by Hendry Peart has a straight up Works Cited page like an essay (Citing works can be so hard, especially if it’s something weird like a webpage with no author or date. If you want official-ness with low-work, I highly recommend easybib.com or citationmachine.com. College essay lifesaver.)
The Viking’s Quest by Lois Walfrid Johnson has a very, very long acknowledgments where she informally thanks the experts she interviewed, the books she read, the museums, etc. Nothing is “cited” but she gives credit to everyone who’s helped her.
Contemporary: This can have as much research as a science fiction novel, especially if your story calls for an unfamiliar setting, job, or life experience. It’ll probably have fewer textbooks and more Google maps, lifestyle blogs, and consulting friends, so it’s less common.
Fantasy/Sci-fi: By Darkness Hid by Jill Williamson has a shorter version of Lois Johnson’s ackowledgements where she thanks people and lists a few sources she leaned heavily on by title and author.
And there are books that don’t do any of that. Whether or not you include one may also depend on what kind of research you’re doing. If you interview/email a lot of expert people, you’ll probably want to mention them somewhere. If you’re browsing Wikipedia, you might not want to include that (even though Wikipedia is a totally viable research jumpstart lol).
tl:dr – It’s not required, there are lots of options, and you can do whatever you want!! And should you publish it, your editor/publishing house will probably have guidelines 🙂
Hey @f5a8c3e92 ! I think these are a good start for 9th grade. I don’t know how in-depth a critique you want if you still want one, but here are some thoughts!
The Serpent
– I think you have some good alliteration and some good diction (await, yield, condemn). I like the idea behind it, but I think one central image or moment would focus it. Poetry functions best when it’s really concrete. Think about your senses and incorporating them. How does the snake sound in the grass? What does it taste in the air when it flicks its tongue out?
– “Their Father who mourns for them” is a nice line!Ode of the Sunflower
– I think you’re doing some good wondering in this poem, especially the first paragraph.
– The last four lines make a really fast twist from doubt to total belief– There’s some good dissonance with “These fools have convinced me,” but it seems abrupt. We don’t really see what it is that convinces you. Their faith? That they somehow keep growing even though there isn’t any rain?
– I also like this poem the best! Sunflowers are a great, concrete image, and I would encourage you to run with it!Faith
– The first stanza hints at some great things! I want to see more of the tangible discontent the critics are hinting at before the resolution. Doubt and pain are real problems we have to wrestle with as Christians, so I appreciate you tackling them!
– The “faith” lines are a little cliche. I like that you’re drawing from biblical imagery, but the lines are so short they can’t develop, and the current phrasing is pretty worn.
– I’m also not sure what the driving idea is? It might be because it’s late here lol. “Faith” is an abstract concept, so if you want to write about it, I would suggest finding a more tangible image to explore it through.
– I’d recommend “Psalm” by Emily Warn (it’s free on Poetry Foundation’s website :). It’s a really good, faith-based poem that’s also very grounded and solid.Nice start! If you like rhyming poetry but don’t want to worry so much about meter (because meter is so hard. single tear.), but don’t want to move completely to free verse, you could look at forms like rondeau, sestina, or a villanelle 😀 Keep writing poetry!! If you do revise these, I’d love to read them.
It’s really good! Unfortunately, I can’t disassociate it from Anne of Green Gables, so I snicker every time I read it.
Hmm. It’s not exactly a poem, but I really like Shakespeare’s Richard III or Henry V. As You Like It is pretty good! The Eagle is really well-written, but I think Charge of the Light Brigade is my favorite. (Do I detect a trend?)
@emily-d Congrats and cupcakes for trying something new!! I’m not very good at meter and don’t have much help there, but iambic pentameter is the most common and was the easiest for me to pick up. If you’re interested in the “rhythm” of line breaks, punctuation, parataxis, and the like, you can do a lot to control the pacing and emphasis of a poem if you want to experiment even more. Either way can be get crazy technical and nitpicky, so don’t get too frustrated in your first forays 🙂
To echo Daeus, the best way to learn it is to read a bunch good examples and then make a lot of bad examples yourself. Most traditional poetry (i.e., Tennyson and Shakespeare) is metered, so there’s a plethora of masters to learn from.
If you’re interested in “modern poetry,” aka free verse, at all, there’s a huge list!
Scott Cairns’ “On Slow Learning” is funny, as is Billy Collins. If more serious or obviously contemplative is more your style, any of Mary Karr’s “Descending Theology” poems are good, but “The Garden” and “The Crucifixion” especially. “In the Ghost House Acquainted” by Kevin Goodan is also high on my list, and it’s really pastoral so it feels a lot like Romantic poets like Tennyson if that’s your style!! 🙂
And exactly what @jess said. Read a lot of all sorts of poetry and use lots of interesting diction and description!
@ethryndal Vader, why are you like this? I mean I know why, and you came by your Extraness honestly, but WHY? How does the Empire function, honestly? It’s like a toned-down version of that Mirror-Verse ST:TOS episode.
Galen was a great character, and he’s so different from anyone we’ve really seen in Star Wars before, so I appreciated that. Rogue One is just so different from anything else in the film franchise, but I’d argue that it tonally matches Clone Wars (which is near and dear to my heart). I just have a lot of feelings, friends.
*Skywalker Twins Defense Squad pulls up and rolls down window*
Rogue One was amazing. I can’t wait until it comes out on DVD so I can suffer in High Definition from the comfort of my own home.
@dragon-snapper @ethryndal Kennric was such a good (bad??) villain. All the in-fighting with Tarkin and Imperial hierarchy was everything I didn’t know I wanted. Also can we talk about how terrifying my boy Vader was in that last scene? I’ve never been more scared of him in my life.@arella-noreen Welcome! Your book sounds fun, and hopefully this will be a great place for you to kick around ideas and get feedback! What kind of poetry do you like?
It’s always great to meet another INFJ! ENFP+INFJ is a hilarious duo and I love mine. My ISTJ is a sweetheart, and we get along great 🙂
@graciegirl and @dragon-snapper I was internally screaming the last 5-10 minutes of Rogue One. So many tears. A lot of laying on the floor afterwards.
@northerner Well, doctrine-wise I’m pretty Protestant, but I have a lot of respect for a lot of Catholicism, especially their architecture, writing, and theology of beauty and art. So… aesthetically Catholic? Maybe?Widdrim is Old English actually 🙂 It means a state of confusion or madness/great mental excitement.
Okay 🙂
Aw, thank you! I like yours too; it’s bright and calm.
@graciegirl Good for you!
@dragon-snapper Rogue One was fantastic! How dare the characters make me care and then do THAT?
@emma-flournoy I love Tolkien! I, a terrible English major, have never read Les Mis unless you count a little abridged version. The story is beautiful though.
@northerner Oops! George MacDonald did write that. The consequences of reading too many authors who influenced each other haha 🙂 I would vote Father Brown because it’s fun detective stories, but the way he presents apologetics of the Catholic Church makes me a bigger fan of the good father than Sherlock Holmes (even though he’s pretty good too).
Interesting. I’ll keep that in mind.@graciegirl I think so! I’m still enjoying it, but it’s definitely ramping up to Rogue One/New Hope. It’s getting a little more serious, but the worldbuilding is on-point, and we’re finding out so much more about Sabine and what the Empire is up to. I’m in pain but also thrilled.
@theliterarycrusader Ooh, I’ll look into that! Thank you. I work a tutoring job that has a lot of editing and proofreading and a few other opportunities to work with real-life writing, but I would welcome any advice you’d be willing to share!
@dragon-snapper Hahahahaha! That’s a great scene. Obi-wan is my favorite, but he gets into so much trouble. Luke and Leia are also amazing 🙂I’ve been playing for probably eight/nine years? I’m a little rusty when I’m at school though. How about you?
@northerner Wow, that’s really impressive. Which languages?I love Chesterton! Let’s see, I’ve read Manalive, Orthodoxy, Father Brown, some poetry, and Lilith. The Man Who Was Thursday is on my to read list 🙂
Thank you all for the welcome!
@dragon-snapper I love Star Wars! The next episode of Rebels is going to destroy me. What’s your favorite era? Another piano buddy! I also do voice.
@Daeus Howdy! Right now I really enjoy high fantasy and magical realism/urban fantasy. How about you? Widdrim isn’t my real name, but it would be an epic one.
@aratrea English majors for the win! I don’t think I’ve read that, but it’s definitely going on the reading list now 🙂
@graciegirl It’s been a long time since I took the Enneagram, but I think I split pretty consistently between Type 4 and 5. What’s yours?
