The Sass Awards 2019-Reviews & Interviews Book ✔

Poetry 2nd Place Winner-TheInnocentThief

TheInnocentThief-Music

Titles Read: mood, the voice in your head, a soul, you

Quick disclaimer: Thank you very much for letting me read your work! I have tried my best to follow the judging rubric set out for the competition. However I am human, and human perception is subjective. Please take what you can from my review, but don't let it break your confidence, or make you question your abilities, or stop writing, or anything like that. And above all please don't get angry at me!

Title 4 /5

Although the collection title does not strike me as particularly original, I can tell looking at the poem titles that it will be going with an overall theme for the collection. I look forward to seeing how this theme is carried out throughout the collection.

Description/Blurb 10 /10

The blurb is wonderfully formatted. It gives an accurate description of the contents of the collection, and is presented in a poetic and creative way.

Cover 3/5

The cover contains an image of a tapes in keeping with the theme of music. However the colors are rather dull. I would advise opting for a more colorful cover of a similar content in order to better catch eyes on Wattpad, where unfortunately books are often judged by their covers.

Spelling & Grammar 15 /15

To my notice, correct spelling was employed in all poems I read, and when grammar was used irregularly, it appeared to be intentional and for effect. Throughout the poems the poet chose to use lowercase were often uppercase letters should be. This was intentional and was mentioned in the blurb, so the poet was not marked down for this.

Literary Devices 5/5

Yes, literary devices were used well. Notably, the poet appeared to use repetition as a device. Phrases were repeated not just within poems but throughout the collection. It seemed to this reader that the author was doing this as a way to mimic a song, where a chorus would be repeated throughout. If this was a conscious move on the poets part, I think it was an excellent one. Very nicely done.

Description 3 /5

The poet does a good job keeping with the theme of the collection, music. However as one would expect this involves a lot of description and images associated with sound. I think even greater effect could be achieved by incorporating the other senses into the poem, perhaps still triggered by music or the element of hearing.

Rhythm 5 /5

The rhythm was very balanced throughout the collection. As mentioned before they were repeating phrases that were found not just with some poems but throughout the collection. This led to an overall rhythm running throughout the collection which I found very impressive and must've taken a lot of forward planning. Very nice job.

Word Choice: 7 /10

As mentioned before, many images involving sound and music are found throughout the collection, such as 'waves crashing against the shore', 'vibrato strums', and 'cheers of the audience'. I enjoyed the theme of the collection but also found it somewhat limited in the images it was able to express in my mind, and oftentimes phrases were not very original. One thing I did love about the poet's word choice was a continued use of certain set phrases such as 'and the music will be heard soon after' by the poet in order to evoke the feeling of a song.

Creativity/ Originality 18 /20

The where the poet sticks to their theme to out the collection and not only adheres to it but also continues to evolve it throughout individual palms impressed me very much. It look like it took a lot of dedication and forward planning to make sure all parts are in keeping with the overall theme.

Overall impact 7 /10

I think the strongest emotional impact for me was found in the closing lines of the poem 'A Soul'. In it the refrain that has been continuing throughout the other poems is repeated: 'that to you is music. Listen for a soul in every being, and the music will be heard soon after.' At this point in the collection the phrase has been repeated so many times that is now familiar to the reader, and it greets you like an old friend at the end of the poem.

Development of the poet's voice 8 /10

It seemed as though this collection was written as a whole judging by the continuity throughout the poems. As such the poet's voice does not vary much throughout. However the planning, the theme, the repetition all shows very impressive and purposeful authorial voice. I am very impressed by this poet and I would like to see other work by them. Perhaps in future works the poet could try to to create stronger images using more unique pairings of words. I would really work on your word choice; your planning, rhythm, and structure are already great.

Total : 84 /100