Introducing @metugejacy20

Source: Introducing myself in Beauty of Creativity ...

It is interesting to see new users in the Steem environment blossom in new parts of the world. In this case, I am looking at Esunge Jacintha (@metugejacy20), who goes by her first name Jacintha. She is the first person I have met who comes from Cameroon. She hasn't joined the Steem Skillshare community (yet), but I am sure she will become an exceptional contributor when she does.

In this post, "Introducing myself in Beauty of Creativity ...", Jacinta writes about some of her hobbies and includes a couple of her poems. I find poetry an interesting form of literature. It works on many levels. One of the most straightforward poems, "Roses are red," shows simple rhyming.

Roses are red; Violets are Blue
Sugar is sweet, and so are you.

or not

Roses are red; Violets are Blue
Some poems rhyme; this doesn't.

Other poems might use alliteration (repetition of sounds) for emphasis. One of the first poems I wrote (about 50 years ago) started with an alliteration; it started with S's.

Slowly strode the hunter through the mountain glen.

Another technique is to constrain the text to a certain rhythm or meter. The most famous is called Iambic pentameter, which was used by William Shakespeare. The rhythm is measured in "feet," which are sequences of syllables.

An iambic foot is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The rhythm can be written as:

da DUM

Iambic foot

Pentameter means it is a sequence of five feet:

da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM

the RAIN in SPAIN falls MAIN ly IN the PLAIN
Co RAL is FAR more RED than HER lips' RED;
But, SOFT! what LIGHT through YON der WIN dow BREAKS?

When you consider how much work would go into maintaining a consistent meter, you must acknowledge Shakespeare was an incredible writer.

There is a rhyming form found predominantly in a style of verse called a Limerick. An Anapest Trimeter is a form that has a foot that is two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable.

Twas the NIGHT be fore CHRIST mas and ALL through the HOUSE
(Anapest Tetrameter)

It is challenging to find "clean" limericks, but this one written by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. about a hundred years ago should be sufficient:

God’s plan made a hopeful beginning.
But man spoiled his chances by sinning.
We trust that the story
Will end in God’s glory,
But at present the other side’s winning.

This is my vain attempt at a limerick as a reply to her invitation, "Hopefully you'll come to my country some day."

The was a young girl from Cameroon
Who replied to a Canadian Loon
Wouldn't it be insane
If you came on a plane
He said, "I can't arrive very soon."

Another dimension has to do with the meaning of words. Most people know that "The Little Death" (La petite mort) in modern context means "the spiritual release that comes with orgasm." For it to be effective, it relies upon a shared understanding of meaning. Another poem I wrote included the line:

When Fimbulwinter meets Ragnorak

This presupposes that the person knows Norse Mythology. Fimbulwinter is particularly evocative when people talk about the temperature is rising due to climate change. They forget that a 3-year winter would be much worse.

There is a line in Jacintha's poem -

Kiss me on the forehead and help me get some rest

has a different connotation depending upon where one comes from. Ordinarily, I would consider a kiss on the forehead would be very affectionate; as in the kiss of a parent on the forehead of an infant. At least for some of the people I knew in Ukraine, it is connected to kissing the forehead of a relative who has just died. I don't know if they have the same associations in Cameroon but if so it puts an entirely different slant on her poem.