I admire the rhyming in both of the ballades and both of them flow so well. I should have mentioned that when I critiqued the other.
This ballade is very well written, and I also think it's well composed. I have a teeny nit: the poem opens with a theatrical performance; there's a stage and a cast consisting of the birds. And does that really mesh with the cricket bowler at the end of S1? Theatre + cricket = mixed metaphor? I'm not sure, but I think it's a little strange. Is the theatre allusion necessary?
The theater stuff comes back in the envoi, and I have to say I really get lost there. My fault surely -- it goes right over my head. For instance, who is the Prince? All I can think of is Hamlet. Possibly the phrase "striking role" applies to both theatre and cricket, and the same may be true of the word "cue" -- and in that case there is finally justification for what earlier felt like a mixed metaphor. Well, I guess I'd sum up by saying the poem is very well written with nice details. But personally, it's not my cup of tea.
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