11-24-2025, 07:10 AM
(11-24-2025, 05:20 AM)dukealien Wrote: The effort was by no means wasted! Grand last thoughts from a character who comes down to us one-sided; next you'll be saying Richard III wasn't such a bad guy (though bad-ass he assuredly was).Haha you are too kind, but even looking at it now I am seeing so many things I want to revise ::joy::
Catiline is a fascinating figure. He is something of a historical crush for me, and I have written a possibly disturbing amount of fanfic about him. He was an archetypal aristocrat, proud, unbending, yet motivated by noblesse oblige to oppose his own class interest, only to be slandered and framed for his efforts by the Establishment's lapdog, Cicero. It is a shame his story is not better known, but victors, history, etc.
Ordinarily, I would work on a poem like this for days or weeks, polishing it until all the humanity is gone and it is as soulless and artificial as the rest of my poems, but this LPiA thing has been both intimidating and liberating. I am doing most of them out of order, but I am only giving myself one day for each one and then posting it even tho it is nowhere near done. It is good to get out of one's comfort zone (or so I am told), and it has certainly got me better at drafting, knowing I will not have days or weeks to work on it!