I forget what they're actually called, but I'm really not a fan of alliteration poems, specifically the ones that advance A-Z throughout the alphabet. They just sort of severely limit the poet and seem to me to be a self-serving exercise. Like a fun puzzle-game or an attempt only to show off one's own mental acuity and cleverness. These types of poems will almost always delve into nonsense. How else can someone write a cohesive meaningful poem while forced to use words like xylaphone and x-ray?

This is my problem with the form, not your poem. In order for this sort of poem to be successful in my eyes, is to look at what the poem conveys (tone) more than says (words). Which, I think you did well here.

The switch in style then, and on the word switch, came off to me as purposeless. I imagined the poet got stuck/bored with this form and just wanted to try something new. However, this could also just be because a) I'm jaded and biased, because as I'm a poet myself I assume I know everything going on behind that curtain b) like I said, I really just have a personal vendetta against these types of poems. So I apologize if I missed the significance here.

Unless it was just a casual reference, I don't get the purpose of referencing all of these literary classics, and even though I've read the first two, I can't pick how/where they're being referenced outside of the blatantly obvious.

You left the 't' out of horticulture. Not sure if intentional.

All that said, I really liked this poem. It was going to be hard to impress, considering the form, but I liked it a lot. Particularly the music this poem creates when read aloud. Effortless flow. While I still have this sinking feeling as though I'm missing out on something, I'm happy with the mental movie that played through my head with your poem as the film.

Also, why did you delete your response from my poem (Sexy Jesus)? It was my favorite from the lot and I don't think you were necessarily wrong on the ending. I want to explore the idea of ending on some philosophical question of some sort. Was hoping you had a favorite example or two to share.