I Hereby Crown Thee ...
Viewing comments for Chapter 4 "By Nightmare's Dark Decree"A collection of crowns of sonnets
115 total reviews
Comment from Judian James
I'm back from holiday and remembered you teased me about missing your Crown of Sonnets. Here I am ... all this for my two cents worth: BRILLIANT. I could quote the entire piece ... so many, many good lines. Perfect rhyme and meter (of course) and a frightening recounting of your nightmare. I've never had a nightmare. I guess I'm pretty damn lucky! Anyway, fabulous enjambment and turn of phrases throughout right to your final/starting line. BRAVO!
reply by the author on 26-Jul-2011
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I'm back from holiday and remembered you teased me about missing your Crown of Sonnets. Here I am ... all this for my two cents worth: BRILLIANT. I could quote the entire piece ... so many, many good lines. Perfect rhyme and meter (of course) and a frightening recounting of your nightmare. I've never had a nightmare. I guess I'm pretty damn lucky! Anyway, fabulous enjambment and turn of phrases throughout right to your final/starting line. BRAVO!
Comment Written 25-Jul-2011
reply by the author on 26-Jul-2011
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Thank you so much, Jude :-). I think this is a record; yours is the 31st sixer for this poem. I simply can't argue with that. I do hope you had an awesome holiday, my friend!
Mike
Comment from Warren Rodgers
Mike,
This is quite an accomplishment and I congratulate you on pulling it all together in a wonderful crown of sonnets. Your writing is finely crafted in excellent meter and rhyme as usual! Not that I take that for granted at all, I do appreciate reading your work which consistently delivers great meter and unforced rhymes. At times I think that's a dying art! The story makes me glad that I don't remember dreams. Very frightening but also very creatively written with wonderfully unique phrasing and thoughts! If I mentioned them all I'd just be copying your entire work in my review. Sorry for being so late with this review but the site had me restricted from giving you the six you have earned, until today.
Best regards, Warren
reply by the author on 22-Jul-2011
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Mike,
This is quite an accomplishment and I congratulate you on pulling it all together in a wonderful crown of sonnets. Your writing is finely crafted in excellent meter and rhyme as usual! Not that I take that for granted at all, I do appreciate reading your work which consistently delivers great meter and unforced rhymes. At times I think that's a dying art! The story makes me glad that I don't remember dreams. Very frightening but also very creatively written with wonderfully unique phrasing and thoughts! If I mentioned them all I'd just be copying your entire work in my review. Sorry for being so late with this review but the site had me restricted from giving you the six you have earned, until today.
Best regards, Warren
Comment Written 21-Jul-2011
reply by the author on 22-Jul-2011
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Warren, not only am greatly pleased you enjoyed this piece, I'm sorry you missed out on the $1.30 payout! Thanks so much, my friend. Oh, congrats for placing in the sonnet contest, by the way - that's a hotly contested one. Thanks so much for this great review - that makes 30 sices for this poem, which is definitely a record for me!
Mike
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You're welcome, Mike. It should always be about the writing, the money is secondary. Thank you for your congrats on placing in the sonnet contest, I was and still am thrilled!
Warren
Comment from CALLAHANMR
Hi Mike:)
I really enjoyed reading through your long nightmare. It seems fitting that you use the complex Crown of Sonnets format to reveal the complexity of your nightmare.
I used to have such unsettling and dark dreams when I was young. I would awake in a cold sweat in fear of death until I started Transcendental Meditation . sometime in my early twenties I lost my wild rides oh headless white horses and now I rarely even think about them, but the came in bloody droves and I feared they had come to carry me across the River Styx.
From experience, I know you won't miss you nightly visits to the center of hell, but if you're lucky like me your dreams will change to restful solitude and you will welcome when they come all too briefly.
great structure in your Crown of Sonnets.Sleel well tonight and fill your mind with pleasure.
Roger aka Marilyn's writing partner for fifty years
reply by the author on 22-Jul-2011
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Hi Mike:)
I really enjoyed reading through your long nightmare. It seems fitting that you use the complex Crown of Sonnets format to reveal the complexity of your nightmare.
I used to have such unsettling and dark dreams when I was young. I would awake in a cold sweat in fear of death until I started Transcendental Meditation . sometime in my early twenties I lost my wild rides oh headless white horses and now I rarely even think about them, but the came in bloody droves and I feared they had come to carry me across the River Styx.
From experience, I know you won't miss you nightly visits to the center of hell, but if you're lucky like me your dreams will change to restful solitude and you will welcome when they come all too briefly.
great structure in your Crown of Sonnets.Sleel well tonight and fill your mind with pleasure.
Roger aka Marilyn's writing partner for fifty years
Comment Written 20-Jul-2011
reply by the author on 22-Jul-2011
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Thank you, Roger, for your wonderful words :-). This one has plagued me since I was very young, but it's rare visitor these days (thankfully!). A crown seemed like the only fitting form in this instance, and I'd been aching to tackle another one. I'm so glad you liked it!
Mike
Comment from sasil
Bravo to you for confessing your nightly fears. I'm sure I'm way off, but I'll hazard a guess at interpretation: the dream is symbolic of fears of loss of control, of homelessness, and being chased by feelings of inequity, unworthiness or that of being unwanted in this world, and subsequent desire to seek acceptance elsewhere (with little true hope of finding it).
Since early childhood, I've had the recurring dream of being chased by dragons through a desert (never been to one) carrying a baby ("the chosen one"). Probably a consequence of being a first born child--who knows. I always awoke near tears and fearful though. My other nightmares? Well....better left in the dark.
Thanks for sharing your personal demons, awesome poetics and generous reviewer rewards. Actually, I kinda feel over-paid.
Best to you and a good night's sleep--
S.
reply by the author on 22-Jul-2011
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Bravo to you for confessing your nightly fears. I'm sure I'm way off, but I'll hazard a guess at interpretation: the dream is symbolic of fears of loss of control, of homelessness, and being chased by feelings of inequity, unworthiness or that of being unwanted in this world, and subsequent desire to seek acceptance elsewhere (with little true hope of finding it).
Since early childhood, I've had the recurring dream of being chased by dragons through a desert (never been to one) carrying a baby ("the chosen one"). Probably a consequence of being a first born child--who knows. I always awoke near tears and fearful though. My other nightmares? Well....better left in the dark.
Thanks for sharing your personal demons, awesome poetics and generous reviewer rewards. Actually, I kinda feel over-paid.
Best to you and a good night's sleep--
S.
Comment Written 20-Jul-2011
reply by the author on 22-Jul-2011
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Sasil, thank you so much for this insightful, thoughtful review. This dream is very rare these days - perhaps that's due to Fanstory and a membership that's done nothing but benefit me.
My most similar dream to yours was probably one a few years ago where I was being chased across a rickety rope bridge by a banshee. I woke up kicking my fiance, who was behind me in bed! For some reason, explaining that I thought she was a banshee didn't placate her! lol :-). Thankfully that was a one-off, or I'd probably be single again right now, rather than married.
Thanks again :-).
Mike
Comment from Deejharrington
I don't have the ability to judge the quality of your sonnet, but the description are so vivid, they are stunning. Even with the complex structure, it is "readable" The reader can feel your fear of your nightmare. To be without hands, feeling helpless against the evils you encounter in your dream is terrifying. Very well done.
deb
reply by the author on 20-Jul-2011
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I don't have the ability to judge the quality of your sonnet, but the description are so vivid, they are stunning. Even with the complex structure, it is "readable" The reader can feel your fear of your nightmare. To be without hands, feeling helpless against the evils you encounter in your dream is terrifying. Very well done.
deb
Comment Written 20-Jul-2011
reply by the author on 20-Jul-2011
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Thank you so much, Deb :-). It felt great to finally 'write out' this ol' dream tht's just become a part of me. It's extremely rare these days, and I think i'll actually miss it, should it ever stop!
Mike
Comment from Hitcher
Loved it Mike, absolutely love it, I've bookcased it because I'm going to have to read it over and over to enjoy it properly. You mesmerize me with your words mate, you really do! I'm glad I clicked on tonight because that was a pleasure to read and behold mate. I wrote about my recurring nightmare awhile back now, but it didn't have the finesse of this mate. Your nightmares are as mad as F?N you, you know that don't ya! :)
A pleasure to six you up here Mike!
reply by the author on 20-Jul-2011
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Loved it Mike, absolutely love it, I've bookcased it because I'm going to have to read it over and over to enjoy it properly. You mesmerize me with your words mate, you really do! I'm glad I clicked on tonight because that was a pleasure to read and behold mate. I wrote about my recurring nightmare awhile back now, but it didn't have the finesse of this mate. Your nightmares are as mad as F?N you, you know that don't ya! :)
A pleasure to six you up here Mike!
Comment Written 20-Jul-2011
reply by the author on 20-Jul-2011
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Cheers, Hitch! I'm glad you read it when you did, because the promo has now dropped off. I spent two and a half weeks of intensive reviewing just so I could post this one high up - I knew I needed to pay big with a monster like this!
This ol' nightmare is a rare visitor nowadays, but it's still around after three decades, so it probably says a lot about me!
Mike
Comment from SecretSquirrel
It seems like it runs away at times, but it is pretty interesting and uses some big words to make up the final rhyme connections. The final 3 quatrains and 2 ending lines are very good and they so a really nice job of summing up the whole poem and acting as a refrain for the dreamscape description earlier in the poem. Really nice and feels very victorian and earthy.
reply by the author on 20-Jul-2011
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It seems like it runs away at times, but it is pretty interesting and uses some big words to make up the final rhyme connections. The final 3 quatrains and 2 ending lines are very good and they so a really nice job of summing up the whole poem and acting as a refrain for the dreamscape description earlier in the poem. Really nice and feels very victorian and earthy.
Comment Written 20-Jul-2011
reply by the author on 20-Jul-2011
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Thanks, Squirrel :-). It felt to good to write this one out. There's nothing like a bonkers dream to provide one an excuse for some bonkers poetry!
Mike
Comment from Kentucky Sweet Pea
Hi Mike,
This is lengthy, but telling, so that's always a good thing. :)
Is there a theme running thread through here tonight? Seems like I've read several poems with the same tone, although in many different ways, saying the same things.
Your rhyme and meter is good- you are one of the top poets on this site, as far as I am concerned.
Write on-
Penny
reply by the author on 20-Jul-2011
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Hi Mike,
This is lengthy, but telling, so that's always a good thing. :)
Is there a theme running thread through here tonight? Seems like I've read several poems with the same tone, although in many different ways, saying the same things.
Your rhyme and meter is good- you are one of the top poets on this site, as far as I am concerned.
Write on-
Penny
Comment Written 20-Jul-2011
reply by the author on 20-Jul-2011
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Thank you, Penny - what a marvellous compliment :-). I hope reading my nightmare hasn't caused them for other people, thereby giving rise to similar poems!
Mike
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lol! maybe it's the moon!
Comment from Galadriel's Lyric
Mike, you are a visionary unlike any other here on FS. I am taken to an imaginary place as I read of your dreaming. Your descriptions and imagery are stunning and leave me, the reader, in awe of your talent. You paint amazing portraits of yourself and your life. For you, a word is worth a thousand pictures. Very well done.
~Kristie
reply by the author on 20-Jul-2011
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Mike, you are a visionary unlike any other here on FS. I am taken to an imaginary place as I read of your dreaming. Your descriptions and imagery are stunning and leave me, the reader, in awe of your talent. You paint amazing portraits of yourself and your life. For you, a word is worth a thousand pictures. Very well done.
~Kristie
Comment Written 19-Jul-2011
reply by the author on 20-Jul-2011
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Thank you, Kristie :-). I think I'm blushing as I sit here on the train, heading to work! It did feel good to get this one written put for the world to see, and I'm so happy you enjoyed reading it!
Mike
Comment from Gert sherwood
Amazing Fleedleflump
Your crown of Sonnets of your recurring nightmare
is so vivid and yes terrifying.
What baffles me how well you recalled each detail.
Thank you for haring your poetic talented voice.
Gert
reply by the author on 20-Jul-2011
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Amazing Fleedleflump
Your crown of Sonnets of your recurring nightmare
is so vivid and yes terrifying.
What baffles me how well you recalled each detail.
Thank you for haring your poetic talented voice.
Gert
Comment Written 19-Jul-2011
reply by the author on 20-Jul-2011
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Thank you, Gert :-). I usually cannot remember dreams, I only know that I've had one. This beastie has visited so often since I was very young that it's like an old friend now. Thankfully he's one who visits rarely these days, but I never forget his face or tue way he dances.
Mike