All Comments on 'Saudade *'

Poems about melancholy can too easily appear melodramatic. Yours doesn't, Mer. The images are crisp and well integrated in the different stanzas. I didn't feel the "woe is me," that could have ruined the poem.

I'm not convince an explanation for the title was needed. My search took 5 seconds to do. I admit this reflects a bias on my part. As a reader, I like to figure something out about a poem if it's not too confounding or has too many words to look up.

I have mixed feelings about "whence," but that's a quibble.

"leaving frost" I think is too strong. If I understand saudade correctly, there's still some passion(heat) in spite of the chill, although it's repressed. "Leaving debris" came to mind.

Although you're stating the obvious in the last line, it works well because it loops back to the title, another reason why I don't think the explanation was needed, and I liked the way the near rhymes of "pain" and "blade" completed the poem.

A bit disconcerting, a visceral reaction, which is meant in a good way in that I felt this. Honestly good!

I really this. In part because it brought me back to "Sodade" Cearia Evora's best known song and which is also among the most played on my Ipod, but also because you've captured the essence of the emotion. My only suggestion would be to replace the 'saves' at the end of the second stanza with 'soothes.'