Tall Tales 1 Finalized

Thanks for participating in the Tall Tales 1 Poetry Contest! There were a lot of creative entries, and I enjoyed judging my first contest thoroughly!

I set up some “scoring” to help me select:

• Several entries were eliminated for not having the requisite 3-5 stanzas.
• From there, I assigned 1 to 3 points for each of: tall tale, meter, rhyme, and humor.
• A “tall tale” was considered one with a high degree of exaggeration or unbelievability; obviously, there’s some subjectivity here.
• Meter is an interesting subject, and perhaps more on that with another contest, but really the best test of all: reading it out loud. I recommended equal meter, but that’s only a guideline, and some will argue the reading is more important. 
• Rhyme was preferred over near-rhyme
• Humor is, of course, subjective, but some entries attempted humor and others, less so. 
• Tallying these up, I arrived at a clear winner, a clear second, and 2 entries that were tied for third. I rounded out the top 10 scores with honorable mentions. There were no perfect scores. There are also no perfect judges, at last at PS anyway! :-)

As final thought on meter, consider the following two couplets:

There once was a lady from Freeling (9)

Who had a peculiar feeling. (8)

Once there was a lady from Freeling. (9)

Oddly, she developed a feeling. (9)

The first couplet, though not identical in length, produces a far smoother read in the limerick tradition.

It was a great privilege and honor to review your tall tales, and I look forward to doing so again soon!

-jeff

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