FimFiction Link - Short ID: 549287/the-imminent-wreckage-of-a-forthcoming-tide
Published: Jan '24
Not really a proper review, because I'm not quite sure about my own feelings about the fic (it's more a collection than a fic, but I'd rather keep the post simple), but I figured it's still interesting enough to talk about.
What I find really interesting is that the fic utilizes a kind of poem-form I personally really hate otherwise. I believe it's what's known as free verse, when there's neither rhyming nor a beat to the text. Maybe I'm just not cultured enough or whatever to appreciate it, but nine times out of ten it just feels like wankery to make some boring prose slightly more compelling. Here, however, I'd risk the author being that one out of ten. I really like how uncertain and anxious (for lack of a better word) the poems read, uneven lines following each other as characters bawl their figurative hearts out over flames burnt out and love-turned-hate.
The little glimpses of life these poems show are gloomy and artsy as one would expect. Poetry is perhaps even more subjective than prose, so I could easily imagine someone trying this fic and immediately going "ew, tumblr", but I personally think there is merit here, even if I also prefer to read other sorts of stories far more than like this one. The author uses a fairly simple vocabulary and yet the text manages to be purple, which I think is an impressive achievement that somehow ducks under being pretentious. While it doesn't exactly have the grace of an 'Ozymandias' or the dread of the 'Raven', you can read earnest pain, languishing, and ruined love in the poems. One might wonder if the author poured some of their own emotions into it.
My biggest issue with the story, but one might argue this is also a me-problem, is that I'm unable to really associate the first two poems with any characters. The third and fourth are obvious, and account for three of the four character tags, but I'm really uncertain who the rest are meant to represent. By the tags, I'd imagine it's Twilight, but the poem doesn't really give me that impression. And maybe her tag was just a misdirection or added for the simple fact that she is mentioned for one line in the third poem, while the first two are just general expressions of broken love, but either way, this bothered me a little.
I guess, if you like purplish poems about horses in bad relationships, I can recommend the story. It's hardly over a thousand words, anyway.