| Author | Message | ||
| Sieglinde Wood
Valued Member Username: ziggy Post Number: 180 Registered: 07-2008 |
DOES THIS EVER HAPPEN TO YOU? Sometimes I'll write something and I spend so many months on it that it looks familiar by the time I finish it. Of course it does. We've been staring at each other since it was born. Or sometimes it comes together a little too neatly... Or the images all seem way too familiar... I have this occasionally, but never so strong as with a poem I have (re)posted below, from Biofeedback. I have tried Duplichecker.com, but nothing, and have few resources to buy a fancy-er program. And most of them miss quite a bit, according to some article I trolled, somewhere. But I am hoping maybe one of you folks will recognize it...or not. Anyway, it will make me feel better to at least try. Look familiar? APPEARANCES – LESSON IN SCARLET Sitting just in front of a white-washed church, the adult Tree Lilac’s diplomacy still holds a town common, the last of a stand; In his leaves is a keep, Scarlet’s secret. Enfolded rapt, up in his long-cabled limbs, she’s cloaked in a flocked, wooly bloom. Borne above, sanctuary of fragile repose, she knows You ca-an’t see me... Sly Lilac, he shrugs but a rustle reveals a red sleeve and the tip of a hood. So, low, I come closer, a head-leveled hand and eyes narrow, to peer at the school. I wait below, ready to show my surprise. At the end, she’ll say Boo! and come down. Nobody knows this place, only us kids... and a parent should know when to smile, but the shade-soured ground is telling and lies worn smooth by a century of sneakers.  | ||
| ~M~
Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 33837 Registered: 11-1998 |
Dearest Sieglinde -- I understand your distress. I've often felt like this. However, it's important to understand the difference between true plagiarism and borrowing from the authors we love. Great artists have been "stealing" from each other for years. We write what we read. It's natural. Here are two Challenges that explain what I'm talking about in greater detail: Models and Art Thieves The Great Art Heist I highly doubt that what you've written is a word-for-word plagiarism of someone else. To do that, there must be intent. You would know you are doing it because you would be consciously copying down each and every word. But to "steal" a bit here and there, an unconscious "theft," a word or a phrase or a line or an idea? This isn't plagiarism, it's borrowing and modeling ourselves after those we admire. As I've said, it's been done for centuries. You would certainly not be the first to have done it. Love, M | ||
| Fred Longworth
Senior Member Username: sandiegopoet Post Number: 5881 Registered: 05-2006 |
Read Billy Collins' poem "The Trouble with Poetry" and it will put many of your anxieties to rest. Fred YOUR FOOTNOTE ADVERTISEMENT HERE. Call 1-555-555-5555 and ask for Fred. 10% discount if you mention Wild Poetry Forum. | ||
| LJ Cohen
Moderator Username: ljc Post Number: 11041 Registered: 07-2002 |
Ziggy--see--didn't I tell you not to fret about this?? Unless you have an unconscious perfectly accurate eidetic memory, it is unlikely you have plagiarized. Just keep writing. xo ljc Once in a Blue Muse Blog "Chop Wood, Carry Water" | ||
| Fred Longworth
Senior Member Username: sandiegopoet Post Number: 5883 Registered: 05-2006 |
"Ziggy--see--didn't I tell you not to fret about this??" That's the first line of the short story Elevator Blues by Rita Angeles. Fred YOUR FOOTNOTE ADVERTISEMENT HERE. Call 1-555-555-5555 and ask for Fred. 10% discount if you mention Wild Poetry Forum. | ||
| W.F. Roby
Intermediate Member Username: wfroby Post Number: 673 Registered: 03-2008 |
You could always write it in another language. Then when you get caught by Fred's poetry goons, you could call it a translation and apply for a government grant. You may even be asked to teach a college class. Just watch out -- college kids LOVE plagiarism. | ||
| Sieglinde Wood
Valued Member Username: ziggy Post Number: 181 Registered: 07-2008 |
Hi LJC, That's the problem: I have an unconscious perfectly accurate eidetic memory! Hi Fred! Thanks for the Outloud Guffaw! I needed that. But I'm serious. If none of you well-read folks immediately recognizes this, then I feel safe sending it off. Hi Roby, If I could find the original, I would change mine, slightly, and make it into an ekphrastic piece. As for other languages, I think the wordplay would be lost in translation. BUT, seriously folks: Is this a common fear? I really obsess over this (when the flames of life's other emergencies die down enough to permit it.) Z | ||
| Judy Thompson
Advanced Member Username: judyt54 Post Number: 1470 Registered: 11-2007 |
ziggy, i think most of us wonder if that great line is really ours, now and then--sometimes I will even type it into google to see who might have gotten there first--if it exists and it's no one Ive ever read, then its coincidence. if I recognize the author as one of my favorites or former faves, then I try to change it. Afraid of the Dark | ||
| Judy Thompson
Advanced Member Username: judyt54 Post Number: 1471 Registered: 11-2007 |
LOL there may be a problem, ziggy, in typing your lines into google. they are there, for sure, but someone named Sieglinde Wood from a place called Wild Poetry posted them some time back... You might want to talk to her about that. Afraid of the Dark | ||
| Sieglinde Wood
Valued Member Username: ziggy Post Number: 183 Registered: 07-2008 |
 No, no, not that one. *Sigh* I know that's me. But that first attempt you found was when the images had started to surface. And the original poem probably wouldn't have any of those titles that I've used. (Apparently, I am way too slick for that.) or: So she's using my name, too? What nerve! Anyway, thanks for letting me know that this happens to other folks. The Doubt thing... Z (Message edited by ziggy on April 19, 2009) | ||
| Sieglinde Wood
Valued Member Username: ziggy Post Number: 195 Registered: 07-2008 |
Had a chance to finish reading those links, Thanks, M~! I get the idea (great examples, btw!) But for me, I find it more suspicious in that there are wordplays that I fear I've borrowed, and then set to my own meter - which does seem to work rather well, even if I did pinch the puns... Oh dear. And The Trouble with Poetry is one of my favorites, Fred. Thanks for reminding me of the title... Z | ||
| Judy Thompson
Advanced Member Username: judyt54 Post Number: 1474 Registered: 11-2007 |
i'd not worry about it too strenuously, ziggy. We all stand on the shoulders of the poets we've read, and sometimes on the shoulders of poets we've never read and don't plan to. I have a poem floating about somewhere that I sent to a friend to crit, and he said, the last line sounds so much like James Joyce's molly bloom... I had to look her up to see what he was referring to, and by golly he was right. I figger, there are just so many words out there, and bajillions of people using them--sooner or later we are going to sound like someone else, intentionally or otherwise. Afraid of the Dark |
