Poetry / '57 Fireflite

Thank you for the review. :)

Thank you, Fazz. The poem is about an old car that the narrator stumbles upon in an abandoned field. The full title would be, 1957 DeSoto Fireflite, but I wanted a bit of ambiguity to help strengthen the dragon metaphor. Thank you for the review. :)

Thank you, WJ. :)

You are one of the few reviewer’s who actually saw that this poem was about a car. I thought that it was fairly obvious, but I guess it wasn’t. Thank you for this, RS. :)

Thank you, Miss KC. :)

Thank you for your review. You are correct, it is metaphorical. The “dragon” is actually a car, a 1957 DeSoto Fireflite discovered abandoned in a farmer’s field. Thanks again. :)

ah… now I see. thanks for the tips! :-)

you’re welcome. :)

The poem is about a car. A 1957 DeSoto Fireflite to be exact, hence the title, ”’57 Fireflite”. The dragon is simply a metaphor for said car. I disagree with fields/meadows being expressly different. A meadow is a type of field, so I feel that generally stating that the narrator walks through fields to open the stanza, and then specifying the type of field that the dragon resides in later in the stanza is perfectly acceptable. It is not the air that is windswept or whispering. It is the field that is being swept by the wind, causing the individual grasses of the field to rub against one another, thereby creating a whispering sound. So yes, the field/meadow can be both windswept and whispering simultaneously. I do not see where this is not clear. Not every line ends with a comma, though I will admit I am not the best when it comes to punctuation. The poem was inspired by childhood memories of stumbling upon rusty old cars in a neighbor’s fields, dreaming of one day restoring them. That is the main story that the poem tells, but I wanted the story of the dragon to be able to stand on it’s own, as well as the theme of “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, or “one man’s trash is another’s treasure”. I think that the metaphors worked well in concealing the “dragon’s” true nature, as most people have chosen to read this literally. The “dragon” is the car. “Scarlet scales fading” represent the rusting body and peeling paint of the car. “Amber eyes” are headlights. “Discharged heart” equates to a dead battery. “Stagnant black blood” represents oil. The “dragon” no longer “breathes fire” because the engine no longer turns over. I chose to use words like “body”, “exterior” and “frame” to describe the dragon because those words can typically be used to describe a car, and the dragon is female because cars are generally referred to as “she”. So as you can see, a lot of thought went into the poem. You just have to look beyond the obvious. I hope that this explanation helped you to understand the poem better. Thank you for your review, as always. :)

Forgive me for being a girl but how would I know what a Fireflite is? I hardly know the names of the current cars! I have a meadow, a very large meadow and nary does it rustle when the wind picks up but the willow trees do. I can see how a child might see the car as a dragon all rusty and falling apart. But it’s a stretch if you don’t know what a Fireflite is. I’m sure a lot of thought went into this poem but it didn’t resonate with this reader, she was lost. Shouldn’t punish me for being a girl who doesn’t know antique cars. I was giving an honest opinion from what I knew. I had no clue what you were writing about, and a good writer can bridge that stretch of metaphor with reality. Don’t you think? Or perhaps I’m just stupid. Go figure.

I read the last few reviews too and only one reader got the connection to a car…that in itself should tell you something. I’m not the only one!

You misunderstood me. I didn’t mean any disrespect. I just wanted to give you an explanation of what the poem was about. Yes, I did disagree with some of your comments/suggestions, but I did appreciate them nonetheless as I always do. That’s the problem with corresponding on the computer, you miss the tone and inflection of a person’s message. My apologies for the misunderstanding. :)

Thank you very much Kadence. It appears that you picked up on the metaphor since you put the word “beast” in quotes. Your review is greatly appreciated. :)

Thank you for the kind words, Jade. I came upon an ad for a 1957 DeSoto Fireflite in an old National Geographic magazine. The ad slogan read, “This baby can flick it’s tail at anything on the road!” The car’s name, the slogan, and the car’s looks with its sweeping tail fins, all seemed to lend themselves well to a poem about a dragon. That, along with childhood memories of stumbling upon rusty old cars in a neighbor’s cornfield. I gave it a “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” twist. Thanks again! :)

Thank you so very much, Sanina. :)