I love poetry! Though, I'm not sure if I'm very good at critiquing them, so let me have a hand in it...

Trip of Strength: This one just dripped out of the end of your pen (or keyboard), didn't it? The first stanza is good, but I feel that the repetition of "Give him is humanity" is a little too much, unless it's (like mprezzy said) accompanied by something. 

Depressing Inspiration: I can see the image in my head. You're very good at conjuring images, and even the sound of the entire poem is beautiful. Have you read it out to yourself? On the other hand, I don't particularly like its flow nor rhythm, but maybe it's like that because of the content itself. 

Circular: I love the image here. I see a vast countryside in early autumn (well, I'm not sure since I've lived in the tropics all my life! But that's the feeling that it gives me) during when "I" am in a moment of peace, silence from the world. The only thing that doesn't really seem to fit to me is the "oh" in the first stanza. When read aloud, it seems a little out-of-place, but otherwise, everything is fine to me. I'd give an entire commentary on this, but I'd be rambling. 

The Wonders Dissolve: I'm not sure about this one... the content is pretty good, but I don't like the flow of it. It's rather abrupt at times, for example "In the dust" as a single line in the first stanza really jolted me out of poetry mood. I like the second stanza, though. You speak to the reader (well, to someone, but it speaks out to us collectively), and it feels more personal that way. 

The King is Dead: Sorry to be so frank, but I didn't like this one. Too much repetition and similar images for me.

A Chateau Prince: I like this one; it rings out to me like a song. Are you a musician? I think it must be the refrain/chorus part that keeps returning in bold. Makes me think of a walking bard with his instrument, rather than a prince, though!

The Old Heart: I don't have much to say about this one; seems very neutral to me. There's similarities to Circular, and I think you handled it better than this one.

Ooof... I'm not much of a critic, am I? I can tell you that some give me very vivid images; others are just a little convulsed. If you like, I could do an intensive analysis of each, but I'm not sure how much that would be worth... probably not very much, really. 

FFXII is an excellent game! Well... this coming from a sucker for RPGs, so, there's your bias balance...

Seriously though, the gameplay is awesome. How're getting on with your gambits? I know ETHERS are always a pain to find...

Righteo! While we're waiting for waZelda to get back from goodness knows where, here's...

Challenge for 30th of May 2009 (to be less disturbing this week...): Complete the story below [EDIT: Don't worry Flash, your post still counts well!] with an addition of at least one paragraph of three lines. 

The rain poured down on the roof of the taxi stand as we said goodbye. S/he entered the taxi and, with one last wave at me, closed the doro and sped off. I saw his/her face staring back at me from the backseat, and I ran after him/her in the rain until my lungs were bursting with exhaustion, only to see the taxi turn a bend and fall out of my sight...

No, no. You're spot on with what you say; I didn't explain a few things well.

First, those things I wrote are as pertaining to critiquing skills, not just reading. Unfortunately, an editor or critic must plod over works rather than just read, and look for elements that are good, elements that are lacking, and elements that are bad or missing.

Secondly, when I do talk about looking for those things, if you become familiar with form and such, those things will find you, you won't have to actively seek them out. It's like "Hey, that's a fine metaphor!" dings in your head without even looking for it, and it makes the story all the much more enjoyable to find depths in the writing you may not even first notice. (Sometimes people write them and don't even realize they are there themselves= hidden depths.)

Hope that clarifies some.

Ultimately, like you said: the most important thing in writing is how it makes the reader feel when they read it. But, like the analogy I used earlier, it's important to broaden the horizons. You can eat a bologna sandwich all your life because you like it, but if you don't learn about other foods, you may never find that maybe bologna doesn't taste so good compared to something else. Writing=same. You can initially like something, but read a thousand better books and go back and say "eh, this wasn't as good as I thought."

I babble too much. I'm working on it. mprezzy

Man, you really like food as an analogy, don't you! :P Bologna sandwich, huh? Don't think I've ever had one...

But, yeah, that clarifies lots. Thanks. 

Awesome thread! I think all of us can improve in our critiquing skills. Great discussion. 

You've mentioned a lot about the smaller parts of prose, but what about the overall effect? I think, if the reader usually has to hunt through the piece of work to search for an idea or a sort of symbol that isn't immediately obvious, then it isn't really a piece of good writing. If we can instantly pass on to the reader, through a short piece of prose or other, an idea without smacking it in their faces, and yet without having to try to fill every nook of the words with a deeper meaning, then I think that we're on the right track. After all, it's the initial read of a piece of literature, the instant effect that it has on the reader, that makes the reader want to read more. What I'm getting at is that the overall effect, the instantaneous feeling or idea that gets across to the reader is ultimately the most important thing in prose. I don't believe that it's fundamentally necessary to have a piece of work packed full of literary devices if the effect produced is not engaging. I believe it's the other way around - first, we need to have a piece of work that is engaging - simple is fine. Then, once we have made something that we believe is a good read, we can add in more symbolism, more metaphors and the like. However, simply writing something once and expecting it both to be effective during the first read-through and to be packed full of literary devices and deeper meanings is just asking too much.

...did I go off-topic over there? :P