Verses from my heart


Some spiritual leaders have compared the human mind to a drunken monkey stung by a scorpion. I was having a similar initial thoughts going into the review of this blog, a kind of double whammy. Though I write poetry, I find I do not relate to most people’s poetry. I personally find poetry on most blogs tedious, wordy and pretentious. So I am not overtly excited about poetry blogs. And add to it the blogger is a teenage girl. I know it is wrong to have stereotypes. But the mind unconsciously tends towards stereotypes. Going in with such a negative mindset, this blog turned out to be a pleasant surprise to me. It would not be exaggeration to say I was overwhelmed with the quality of the writings on the blog appropriately names ‘Verses from my Heart

Let us now go over the various aspects of the blog one by one. The title is an excellent one. I am surprised no one had already taken this name before her. ‘Verses from my heart’ is an excellent description for a poetry blog, more so for this blog. The verses are indeed from her heart. The background is well chosen. The background is like the maroon velvet curtains of a stage show which goes very well with the poetry theme. The header is also nice in pink with a heart and the picture of a small girl writing. It is simple and honest like her poetry. As is the tag line ‘Straight from the heart, Simple Words, Giving an insight within me’. Though tag line gets the point across, I feel there is scope to make it more terse and catchy. Another suggestion is to make the sidebars a bit wider. One can hardly see those beautiful curtains currently.

I need to exercise restraint to avoid effusing over her lovely writings. Such is the effect her writings had on me. Let me instead try to focus on areas that stand out and what possibly can be improved. The poems exhibit a maturity beyond her years. Some of the themes are really deep. The words are simple, honest and come straight from her heart. I have often felt poets should give an explanatory note. But most of the poems on this blog need no explanation. The blogger articulates very well and literally weaves images in the reader’s heart. The poems also have good structure and rhyme scheme. She has written just four stories. But each story is a gem in itself. They plots are kept simple but narrated with finesse. The flow and language makes even her longest story an effortless read. Then there are rants and personal experiences which I did not focus on at the blogger’s requests. But from what little I saw, her personal experiences are narrated in a very interesting manner and definitely worth a read.

In terms of feedback on content, as of now, the content is good as it is. But I feel so far the focus has been narrow and I wonder about the long time sustainability. She is good at what she writes. But I fear in the long run, content may start feeling repetitive and reader may start losing interest. So my personal recommendation would be to start exploring a wider range of themes. The blogger should also be writing more stories and narrations of interesting personal experiences. In terms of poetry, she is good at rhymes, structure and refrains. I would like to see her experiment with classical forms such as sonnet, triolet, rondel etc.

There is of course scope for improvement in terms of widgets, navigation and interaction. Interaction is decent. In my opinion, a blogger should reply to every comment without judging the intent of the commentator or value of the comment. The popular posts and labels do provide some navigation. But I do not like labels much as it leads to too much scrolling. I personally prefer static pages with links to posts. Random post and previous/ next post widgets are something that can be added at the end of posts to improve navigation. As the amount of content goes up, classifying by theme can also enhance reader experience. In terms of widgets, page does not look cluttered as such. But I fail to see any utility in the live traffic widget. Who is interested in knowing if a reader from Bangalore is currently reading your content? You can see all that by yourself later on google analytics.

Generally I would recommend everyone to check out this blog, especially the ones interested in poetry and literature. One of the keys to success is to know your own strengths and weaknesses. Lot of people are not too comfortable selecting a limited number of posts as their best ones. But this blogger definitely knows which her best works are. She has selected an excellent set of 5 posts to showcase.

To the Love of my Life
Incandescence
The Voice of the Messenger
For Love in my Life is yet to come
My first short story

10 comments:

DS said...

Beautifully reviewed. One of the best short story blogs I have read. One suggestion for ns from me. Reduce the width of your blog as one has to horizontally scroll your blog which is irksome!
Rest is just fine.
Waiting for more short stories from you!

T F Carthick said...

Thanks, DS. I hope Kirti will check out your comment.

N.S.Kirti said...

Thank you TF for the awesome review :) i will put it up on my blog soon. and got that random post widget for my blog.
and about the width of the blog, actually i had to widen the size to fit in the header. if i shrink it, the header is messed up :(
will see to it once again though.
thanks again!

N.S.Kirti said...

@DS i am so glad you like my stories DS! really honored :) and width wala proble. i told whats the problem in my previous comment i think. donno how to fix that!!

T F Carthick said...

Glad you liked my review, Kirti. You have started very young. Hope to see great stuff from you in the coming years.

DS said...

Ohk NS.. Still I would advise you to look into it.
Horizontal scrolling is not cool at all.

Miss D said...

@Kirti : I didn't even know the existence of your blog before this review and I feel so sorry about that now.
You have a new follower! :)

@The Fool: Whoa! I didn't know you did reviews. I appreciate your honest intent. :)

T F Carthick said...

Thanks, Enchanta.

Antara said...

TF, I absolutely love your reviews. Very honest, and critical in the right way (if you know what I mean).

As for Kirti - you, beautiful writer and wonderful friend, make my life a lot more fun and colourful. :)

T F Carthick said...

Thanks, Antara.

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