h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Botany Bay, SC - A87765448
Author: Ramya Krishna Mulugu - U14997053

I recently took a trip to Botany Bay on Edisto, South Carolina. I was in awe of the natural wonder, and decided to write a poem. I decided a rhyming poem couldn't do justice because of its lasting impact, it would be too restrictive. I decided, for the first time to write a free verse poem. Comments are appreciated. Enjoy!

Ramya, you might want to write out South Carolina for the benefit of the UK readers. They tend to use NI for Northern Ireland but unless they have kin over here SC doesn't mean anything to them.

Okay, I edited that. How was the poem?

I'm not a good poetry critic, I liked the part about 'fighting' with waves and the wildlife references. It is summertime, and a lot of people who are interested in poetry are away from their keyboards currently, so you might have to wait till their back from vacations for more comments so don't be too discouraged.

I don't want to comment on the imagery, rhythm, etc - I'll leave that to the poets who will be coming along - but I'd like to say something about the story you're telling here. I like it.

I almost missed it. I had to go away and come back to get the connection between the different themes of the poem: visiting the site, with its regulations, observing the struggle between different elements of nature, and the casual, almost throwaway reference to the place's slave past. Those empty houses...what went on inside...

I'm glad I came back. When the penny dropped, I was really pleased.

Yeah. That's very effective. I think there are some technical things you can do to punch it up, but like I said, we'll wait for the poetry polishers to come along for that.