Overall Impressions:

My overall impression is to absolutely agree with you. Valentines day is so commercialized that it's not even really special anymore, yet it makes those who don't have loved ones feel terrible if they're alone, and forces those who do have a significant other to feel required to go all out for something they should be doing everyday...showing each other love. Not to mention the ones who use Valentines as a punchline to hurt people even more. These are the people who really make this holiday awful.


Form:


The appearance of the form is very uniform.
It contains 4 stanzas of 6 lines each.


Rhythm:


I am new to this but there doesn't seem to be any real rhythm, beats, or stresses that I could tell of. With this particular poem, sometimes this caused some inconsistencies in the flow and a bit of stumbling when I read it out loud.

Rhyme and Rhyme Scheme:


Rhyming scheme is as follows:

abacbc, dedfef, ghgihi, jkjlkl

Unique rhyming pattern I hadn't come across before, very interesting!


Imagery:


When reading this poem I just kept picturing fake smiles on boys faces with a hand full of flowers and a mind full of expectations of their own personal needs and wants. Like they're simply doing what they feel they have to do to get what they want out of you on this commercialized holiday. Even if it means breaking your heart.


Favorite Parts:

I'm having a hard time pointing out my favorite parts because so many of them connect together to provie the full picture but I like:

Hearts are machines weighed on the scales,
It's a race of the betrayers, a test of trust,
The winner takes all and true love fails.

This was powerful for me because sometimes its true that some people use this very holiday to snake in somewhere they couldn't snake into before. They use a person's emotions and use it against them, thus "winning" if they get what they want but true love has nothing to do with it.

You opened the door with a champion smile
And laughed as you slammed it in my face.
I was a fool, you said, for believing your guile,
And the earthquake shook down all my bricks,
Tumbling them to the rubble of my disgrace;
You pulled out the ace from your sleeve of tricks.

This whole stanza was imagery for fakeness and uncaring for anyone else's feelings but their own, thus tearing down these walls of protecting our heart we once built up to prevent this kind of pain, becuase we were "fool" enough to play right into their hands

Suggestions:

No suggestions, the emotions it stirred were subtle yet strong and grew with each passing stanza ending in a powerfully positive note.


Additional Comments:

Well done, Kasia. This poem was very deep and it seemed the more I read it the more I understood the feeling behind it. Look forward to reading more of your work!


I enjoyed reading your work and hope my review was helpful and encouraging!!!

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