19th century French spoon (Met Museum of Art)‘Love Letter to a Spoon’ by Leland James The Society March 19, 2022 Humor, Poetry 5 Comments . Love Letter to a Spoon How fine thou art my silver spoon. Your neck as graceful as a swan. Your hips full as the harvest moon. Thy manner gentle as a fawn. Bright curls of finespun filigree Like rays of sun doth frame thy face. How splendid to my touch are thee, Desire fulfilled in your embrace. My lips you kiss, a fervent press. I swoon above love’s rapt bouquet. Again, again I bend to your caress In rhymes sublime of bouillabaisse! . . Leland James is the author of five poetry collections, four children’s books in verse, and a book on creative writing and poetry craft. He has published over three hundred poems worldwide including The Lyric, Rattle, London Magazine, The South Carolina Review, The Spoon River Poetry Review, New Millennium Writings, The American Poetry Review, The Haiku Quarterly, The American Cowboy, and The Ekphrastic Review. He was the winner of the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award and has won or received honors in many other competitions, both in the USA and Europe. Find him at www.lelandjamespoet.com & https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/leland-james NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)Trending now: 5 Responses Cheryl Corey March 19, 2022 A poem that pays homage to a spoon? Who would’ve thought? But happily for the rest of us, Leland, you did think of it. It’s a wonderful piece. Reply BDW March 19, 2022 as per Carb Deliseuwe: Though, of course, as Ms. Latham recently pointed out, suggestions, as to diction, meaning or meter, in the author’s purvey, are naturally embraced or disregarded. Two places in Mr. James’ “Love Letter to a Spoon” could be proffered. As to diction, the word “curls” in L5 could be replaced by the clipped “curves”, and the redundant “again” in L11 could be dropped for meter’s sake. Still, the poem is nicely interwoven as is, and is superior in many ways to a recent foray into silverware: “The Fork”. Its terse lines, its similes and its metaphors remind me, if not Neoclassical Italian poetry, at least Modernist American precision—not Imagism. Two impressive elements of “Love Letter to a Spoon”, that could be noted, are its aural stanzaic movement and its Dickinsonian anchor. Reply Joseph S. Salemi March 19, 2022 It’s a cute poem, but if you are going to use the older conjugations of “to do” and “to be,” you need to use them correctly. The second quatrain has two errors. The form “doth” is singular, and cannot be the verb with “Bright curls.” As for “are thee,” it might be acceptable in Quaker-speech, but here it has to be “art thou.” In any case, If you want to use the older “thou” and “thee” and “thy” forms, why scatter the modern “you” and “your” forms throughout the poem? Reply C.B. Anderson March 19, 2022 Indeed, Joseph, if a poet wants to go archaic on us here, he better do it right. Everyone has heard the song “How Great Thou Art” and so there is no excuse for not recognizing and implementing the correct older conjugation in that instance at least. Any good dictionary will still define many words that are effectively obsolete, probably to help us read Shakespeare better. Reply Leland James March 19, 2022 Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it. Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Cheryl Corey March 19, 2022 A poem that pays homage to a spoon? Who would’ve thought? But happily for the rest of us, Leland, you did think of it. It’s a wonderful piece. Reply
BDW March 19, 2022 as per Carb Deliseuwe: Though, of course, as Ms. Latham recently pointed out, suggestions, as to diction, meaning or meter, in the author’s purvey, are naturally embraced or disregarded. Two places in Mr. James’ “Love Letter to a Spoon” could be proffered. As to diction, the word “curls” in L5 could be replaced by the clipped “curves”, and the redundant “again” in L11 could be dropped for meter’s sake. Still, the poem is nicely interwoven as is, and is superior in many ways to a recent foray into silverware: “The Fork”. Its terse lines, its similes and its metaphors remind me, if not Neoclassical Italian poetry, at least Modernist American precision—not Imagism. Two impressive elements of “Love Letter to a Spoon”, that could be noted, are its aural stanzaic movement and its Dickinsonian anchor. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi March 19, 2022 It’s a cute poem, but if you are going to use the older conjugations of “to do” and “to be,” you need to use them correctly. The second quatrain has two errors. The form “doth” is singular, and cannot be the verb with “Bright curls.” As for “are thee,” it might be acceptable in Quaker-speech, but here it has to be “art thou.” In any case, If you want to use the older “thou” and “thee” and “thy” forms, why scatter the modern “you” and “your” forms throughout the poem? Reply
C.B. Anderson March 19, 2022 Indeed, Joseph, if a poet wants to go archaic on us here, he better do it right. Everyone has heard the song “How Great Thou Art” and so there is no excuse for not recognizing and implementing the correct older conjugation in that instance at least. Any good dictionary will still define many words that are effectively obsolete, probably to help us read Shakespeare better. Reply