Review by ReyvrexQuestor Reyes -- The Demon of the Well
Posted: 01 Apr 2020, 03:07
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Demon of the Well" by James B. Hendricks.]
In 1980 — a year after Xinjiang became accessible to the outside world — the National Geographic Society came up with a summary of its expedition to this region. In the March issue of the National Geographic Magazine of that year, the cover was a photo of an aged Uyghur man peering into the camera. To James B. Hendricks the man looked wise, kind, wistful – an almost sorrowful expression that made quite an impression on him. No. This was not the inspiration for the demon in Hendricks’The Demon of the Well. But Hendricks began writing a story, alright, inspired by this photo — in prose — that did not go very well.
It was rather only when Hendricks started writing in verse that things took off, albeit in a different way. An unseen entity — he called her the Muse — strangely took over the writing process of a story that led to the rhyming narrative of The Demon of the Well. Like a fountain, she lets the verses tumble down Hendricks’ head which he would then write down. It took eighteen years for the verses to be collated and completed. She would make the verses come just anytime, and anywhere Hendricks happens to be that sometimes he has to scribble on chunks of wood when no paper is at hand. Women.
The Demon of the Well by James B. Hendricks is a rhymed narrative of two parts. Part One is a trader’s tale about the plight of two soldiers who went back to the arid regions of the Tarim to retrieve their hidden stash of treasures which included a magical chalice. How the demon figured in all these is an interesting adventure to find out. Part Two is a rhymed account by a young lad who accompanied the trader on a second journey to the demon’s lair.
I could find some parallel in The Demon of the Well to such poems as The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam or The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Of course, recent writers are exposed — for better or for worse — to the influence of the poems by Shakespeare, Allan Poe, and Homer, among others. And there’s the earliest of the poems, Epic of Gilgamesh, which precedes them all.
If we have to do a bit of Prosody on The Demon of the Well, its verses were in iambic heptameter. Translation: if we examine the lines, these were made up of seven pairs of unstressed-stressed syllable combinations (called the iambs) out of the fourteen syllables to a line. In comparison, Shakespearean sonnets were written in iambic pentameter. Translation: iambic means a pair of unstressed-stressed syllable combination, and a verse in pentameter consists of five of these, out of the total of ten syllables to a line. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam was also written in iambic pentameter.
It has been said that poets are wont to bend the rules of grammar, invoking poetic license. Shakespeare was said to have even made up words for his purpose. Either there were such cases in this poem and I was only unable to detect, or there were none at all for me to discern — I do not want to find out anymore. The verses sounded good and were there to be relished and enjoyed, especially by fantasy fans that also love poetry.
I must be infected by the current verse mania that I wrote these quatrains:
Most fans of make-believe would find
The Demon of the Well
A mystic tale, that’s well designed;
its end, you can’t foretell.
A gripping read for everyone —
the young and old alike.
You can’t put down until you’re done.
And nothing to dislike.
Now that the verses were arrayed,
appraised of their true worth;
‘Tis not for me to have delayed
this judgment to come forth.
Such fluent lines, such lofty piece
has reached the topmost bars;
Among all else, my joys increase.
‘Tis four out of four stars.
******
The Demon of the Well
View: on Bookshelves
In 1980 — a year after Xinjiang became accessible to the outside world — the National Geographic Society came up with a summary of its expedition to this region. In the March issue of the National Geographic Magazine of that year, the cover was a photo of an aged Uyghur man peering into the camera. To James B. Hendricks the man looked wise, kind, wistful – an almost sorrowful expression that made quite an impression on him. No. This was not the inspiration for the demon in Hendricks’The Demon of the Well. But Hendricks began writing a story, alright, inspired by this photo — in prose — that did not go very well.
It was rather only when Hendricks started writing in verse that things took off, albeit in a different way. An unseen entity — he called her the Muse — strangely took over the writing process of a story that led to the rhyming narrative of The Demon of the Well. Like a fountain, she lets the verses tumble down Hendricks’ head which he would then write down. It took eighteen years for the verses to be collated and completed. She would make the verses come just anytime, and anywhere Hendricks happens to be that sometimes he has to scribble on chunks of wood when no paper is at hand. Women.
The Demon of the Well by James B. Hendricks is a rhymed narrative of two parts. Part One is a trader’s tale about the plight of two soldiers who went back to the arid regions of the Tarim to retrieve their hidden stash of treasures which included a magical chalice. How the demon figured in all these is an interesting adventure to find out. Part Two is a rhymed account by a young lad who accompanied the trader on a second journey to the demon’s lair.
I could find some parallel in The Demon of the Well to such poems as The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam or The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Of course, recent writers are exposed — for better or for worse — to the influence of the poems by Shakespeare, Allan Poe, and Homer, among others. And there’s the earliest of the poems, Epic of Gilgamesh, which precedes them all.
If we have to do a bit of Prosody on The Demon of the Well, its verses were in iambic heptameter. Translation: if we examine the lines, these were made up of seven pairs of unstressed-stressed syllable combinations (called the iambs) out of the fourteen syllables to a line. In comparison, Shakespearean sonnets were written in iambic pentameter. Translation: iambic means a pair of unstressed-stressed syllable combination, and a verse in pentameter consists of five of these, out of the total of ten syllables to a line. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam was also written in iambic pentameter.
It has been said that poets are wont to bend the rules of grammar, invoking poetic license. Shakespeare was said to have even made up words for his purpose. Either there were such cases in this poem and I was only unable to detect, or there were none at all for me to discern — I do not want to find out anymore. The verses sounded good and were there to be relished and enjoyed, especially by fantasy fans that also love poetry.
I must be infected by the current verse mania that I wrote these quatrains:
Most fans of make-believe would find
The Demon of the Well
A mystic tale, that’s well designed;
its end, you can’t foretell.
A gripping read for everyone —
the young and old alike.
You can’t put down until you’re done.
And nothing to dislike.
Now that the verses were arrayed,
appraised of their true worth;
‘Tis not for me to have delayed
this judgment to come forth.
Such fluent lines, such lofty piece
has reached the topmost bars;
Among all else, my joys increase.
‘Tis four out of four stars.
******
The Demon of the Well
View: on Bookshelves
. This is the review of the month! Did you really have to end this in such a poetic manner, thus causing me to loose my heart over and over to both writer and piece!? 