This poem is my first attempt at writing verse in Iambic Pentameter! I recall learning about Iambic pentameter way back when I was studying English at school. Iambic pentameter is a type of poetic metre where each line consists of ten syllables, and the syllables follow a pattern of unstressed-stressed-unstressed-stressed. This video explains it way better than I could myself.
Iambic pentameter is a very popular metre in English poetry. Shakespeare famously wrote several of his works in iambic pentameter. Lately, I've been challenging myself and trying to do different and new things with my poetry. So I thought I'd give iambic pentameter a shot! Counting ten syllables per line was fairly easy, but I somewhat struggled with differentiating between an unstressed syllable and a stressed one. A lot of websites and videos suggest thinking of the syllable pattern as a de-dum de-dum rhythm; since 'dum' comes across more strongly than 'de'. Still, I found this a bit challenging to grasp. I suppose I'll have to read more poems that are written in iambic pentameter to be able to understand this more deeply.
This poem is titled 'This Summer', however, it is not really about summer. It's more about what summer represents, especially when you're a young adult transitioning into the pressures of adulthood and the real world. It's about how we often see our days off as a chance to live as though all of our real-world problems have disappeared. The older I grow, the more I seem to cherish any time off. Perhaps this is because it is only natural for us to carry more burdens as we get older, and days off are the perfect opportunity to drop those burdens for a few fleetingly joyous moments.
I do hope you enjoy this poem, do leave a comment and let me know what you think!
This Summer
This summer, it will be a citrus frost,
Just cool and creamy with a dash of spice,
The sands of yore are disappeared and lost,
I long for a glamorous golden slice.
This summer, it will be a silken sleep,
So sound and soft as the petals of time,
A lucid siesta that's mine to keep,
Like a real daydream, just suave and sublime.
This summer, it will be all-you-can-eat,
A hearty escape with no consequence,
This song is yellow, orange is the beat,
Such is the tune of red adolescence.
This summer, it will be gone far too soon,
This summer, it will be a bubbling bloom,
This summer, we shall devour the ripe moon,
This summer, it is life's own little noon.
This world is a great oyster spilling pearls,
This summer, this summer is the blue sea.
© 2021 Shreya Alagramam
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