kalevala by:
Karin Kaminker
Europa and the Bull
Spirit of Europa fleeting
Passing through many a meeting
Taking stock in hot bull sessions
In the well-oiled stock professions
Only the best company keeping
Gradually her fame came creeping
Coast-to-coast the lands uniting
Minotaur and dragon smiting
That, by Zeus, was the beginning
Of this realm of double-chinning
Bear and bull and in-betweening
Much of losing and of winning
Speculation was its calling
Taurine market beastly falling
Targets hit with verbal arrows
Picadors and red-rag horn throws
Never meaning to be gory
Or deride Europa's glory
Shoot the bull, an allegory
Fully cock and bull, this story.
comment by teacher
Quite liked the content;
liked the tongue-in-cheek use of the interjection “by Zeus”.
As to form, some punctuation would help the reader. For doing away with punctuation conventions there should be plausible content reasons; found the last five lines or so unnecessarily cumbersome to read.
Punctuation – a colon, but where? – would particularly help with:
"Shoot the bull, an allegory
Fully cock and bull, this story."
The use of "fully" is odd.
But letting the poem turn against itself, at the same time commenting on itself and addressing the reader, is an excellent idea, I think.
“Beastly” is an adjective and thus cannot qualify the verb “falling.”
Eight lines ending in “–ing” make for quite monotonous reading.
Why not study my notes on your "Rock Star", shake off the strict trochaic scheme and, using the material, rewrite the “Spirit of Europe.”
PK
