Welcome to your first thread, Trevor; it's good to see your own work.
I like this poem a lot. It's so visual, and you have some lovely turns of phrase. Please don't remove the first stanza - it really draws the reader in! The alliteration is natural, not forced.
There's only one thing I would change, and even as I'm writing this I'm sure others will disagree with me. It's the two appearances of "lumpy": The lumpy river and the lumpy plain. I can see why you might have considered switching stanzas 1 and 2, so that "lumpy" appears at the beginning and ending of the poem. Rounding off in that manner often works well.
Here, though, I think its use is better in stanza 2. Lumpy is the right image for both a crocodile's back peeping out of the water, and/or rocks.
In the last stanza you have the ideal chance to introduce another adjective - a more compelling one - that we haven't seen before. The repetition of lumpy made me feel just a little disappointed.
That's my take on it, FWIW, but all critiques are only advisory of course. Lovely work, though. I felt as if I was there, actually watching the unfolding scene.
Jayne
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