Prose to Poem (Plagiarism too?) (“Time Times Time”)
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The wonderful dVerse Poets Pub, hosted today by Zsa of the zumpoets site, presents a very interesting challenge for participating poets–the conversion of prose to poetry. The idea is to make the prose, someone else’s (and hopefully not under copyright) into, more or less, your own poem (or an amalgam of youand the prose writer.)
I copped mine from good old Charles Dickens.
Time Times Time
It was the best and worst–it
was time. It was
time times time–it
was age. Of
wisdom/foolishness
epic; belief (aching incredulity);
Light seasoned by
Darkness; where hope
winters, despair
springs, and everything before us
feels
like nothing; a time
we go direct
to Heaven
only
if there’s no
other way.
Here’s the true text, from the opening of A Tale of Two Cities:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – “
Explore posts in the same categories: poetry, UncategorizedTags: dVerse Poets Pub, ManicDDaily poetry, poem about aging, Poem based on Charles Dickens, sundial watch, tale of two cities poem
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ManicDDaily 
November 10, 2011 at 8:58 pm
Enjoyed this, I like your take on this famous excerpt.
November 10, 2011 at 9:10 pm
that was really cool. these words ring in my ears, and it’s lovely to see someone play with them in this way.
November 10, 2011 at 9:58 pm
Thanks, Zongrik.
November 10, 2011 at 9:36 pm
a time we go to heaven, only if there is no other way….ha…i like…well played…
November 10, 2011 at 9:58 pm
Thanks, Brian.
November 10, 2011 at 10:36 pm
lovely.
🙂
November 11, 2011 at 3:25 am
love that you took Charles Dickens..and you turned it into such a cool poem…love esp. the last lines…great
November 11, 2011 at 4:06 am
A wonderful take on this classic!
November 11, 2011 at 9:10 am
Love your interpretation and how you molded this classic into such a beautiful poem!
November 11, 2011 at 9:12 am
Thanks, Laurie.
November 11, 2011 at 9:17 am
Perfect ending!
November 11, 2011 at 12:17 pm
Well done, well done. I think working with a text so familiar must be a little easier to work with. Wish I’d done that. The contrasting pairings work very well. And as Anna said, ending is perfect.
November 11, 2011 at 1:25 pm
Excellent choice of words to work with, excellent result. Wondering if there IS a direct way to heaven!
November 11, 2011 at 2:02 pm
Me too! (But not ready yet!)
November 11, 2011 at 1:30 pm
my favorite part was “time times time” – what a cool idea and fun wordplay
November 11, 2011 at 3:18 pm
Awesome write – I loved “time times time” and I loved all the words, phrases turned on their ears:
Light seasoned by
Darkness; where hope
winters, despair
springs,
and so on. Well done indeed!
November 11, 2011 at 6:07 pm
Mmm. Admiring your arrangement of:
where hope
winters, despair
springs
and lo, it is exactly a bit that Ruth, above, picked, but I swear I didn’t just plagiarize! (Though this form invites playing with plagiarism.)
November 12, 2011 at 12:08 am
I think this is brilliant.
November 12, 2011 at 8:06 am
Thanks so much. It was an interesting prompt. I don’t think I fully understood it, but it is an interesting exercise certainly.
November 12, 2011 at 9:18 am
Nice spin on the Dickens bit. very good job, thanks
November 12, 2011 at 4:56 pm
First off, really loved that you picked the Dickens! That was one of the first novel openings I thought of when I created this challenge — I actually included it in the original version of the challenge on the zumpoems site (http://zumpoems.com/2011/10/19/wednesday-poetry-challenge-2/) So very glad you picked this text! Dickens is my all-time favorite author! His ideas in Christmas Carol proceed Freud and are much more accurate!
Liked tyour transformation and the spirit of playfulness and wordcraft you embue into the text. Very well done! Thanks for taking on this challenge!