Hi, Neva! I'm working on a challenge that requires me to review a Folklore item. I stumbled across this and thought I'd give it a quick review.

What Caught My Eye

I love the title. It's super cute and really sounds like the beginning of an old adage... like something my grandmother would say.

Favorite Aspects

The opening two lines are just adorable. They flow well, offer interesting imagery, and I love the actual meaning there.

Language / Word Choice

I think that this type of piece is perfectly suited for children. The only word that I think is an odd choice in this regard is "parr". Some of the others are longer and would need to be explained to a child, but "parr" is one that I'm not sure the average adult could explain. I had to look it up, and I would guess that my vocabulary is better than the average (though possibly not better than yours ).

Technical / Grammar / Syntax

"Love's honey-sweet words they'd encrypt" - Here, "honey sweet" is definitely a compound adjective. That's the way it reads... so it needs a hyphen. Without the hyphen, honey modifies sweet which then modifies words.

"by their side" - "Poets" is plural. "Their" is plural. Poets don't all share one mutual side... so it's "by their sides".

Effect

The flow is really nicely done, the rhymes are interesting and unforced, the imagery is solid... for me, there was a major disconnect between the first stanza and the second because I was expecting more about writers. My issue not yours, likely. Overall though, this is quite a clever piece. A bit of light revision would make this such a strong little piece... the best I have read on here for a while now. A pleasant surprise.





My review has been submitted for consideration in "Good Deeds Get CASH!" .