This week’s poem goes by the title “Story Part Two: Youthful Love.” This is the second poem in the four part series I am working on. The poem is more joyful than the previous in tone compared to the more infatuated tone of the previous poem. The speaker in “Youthful Love” reflects on all the happy times he spent with his love. The various questions at the start set a pattern of repeating as well as a general rhyme scheme that carries through the start of the poem before it becomes modified and then disappears all together. The rhyme scheme is designed to give a joyful sound and flow to the poem. The line “when you cried it hurts me inside” breaks the mood. This contrast gives the poem more range in my opinion. As soon as the line “But when you smiled” comes, the mood surges back up. At this point I switched to the actions of the couple because I know where I wanted to end. Although, I repeated phrases throughout the poem, the final stanza utilizes the echoing of “when we drove home that night” to demonstrate the pain that the speaker is experiencing over the stanza. Each repeat is a little more painful ending with a reference to running a red light. That line is suppose to hint at an accident which is why I used “these were the years of us” throughout the poem. The years of joy and fun are talked about, but now that have ended.

          The reading of this poem was more difficult than the previous. I found that it was difficult to express both the incredible joy and the sorrow in the same poem. The repetitiveness also presented a difficulty in the reading of this poem. Repeating the same thing over and over again made it easy to stumble over words or get caught on the wrong line. That in addition to the rhyme scheme that switched relatively frequently and then stopped existing presented the challenge of not sounding sing songy. This poem has made me realize that expressing happiness in my poetry is more challenging than expressing other more dramatic emotions. I will probably try to include more happy sections in future poems in order to practice the skill. Unfortunately the rest of the story line I am working on will most likely not include any happy moments due to the direction of the poem. The next poem will probably follow the results of the accident and if it ends where I believe it will the story will have a very sad, but sweet ending. I am excited to write the rest of the poems and I am still trying to think of another topic to write about. Although I am considering reading somebody else’s poem or discussing my favorite works.