literature

The Death of a Poet

Deviation Actions

JerryLangdon's avatar
By
Published:
219 Views

Literature Text

It was a sad day

Full of endless mourn

The day that the rhymn went away

And an age of sorrow was born



The day the unknown poet died

Leaving his written word

His grieving bride

His passion unheard



It was an eve of gray

Memories gathered in a box gathering dust

It was a dark day

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust



Long nothing left but bone

Ages of winds have blown

His words found by some ancestor unknown

Forgotten days now shown



Words written with passion

The ink long ago faded

The blood of his heart's compassion

Dug up from their dusty bed



Those forgotten words left behind

Now flow on tongue like some spell

Capture the heart and mind

Hold in awe and compel



It was a joyful day

As the poet was resurrected

Though time its toll did pay

Forgotten sins now corrected
© 2013 - 2024 JerryLangdon
Comments31
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
mjponso's avatar
(I found this from the "Unappreciated Works" section of #TheCritiquables)

From the first stanza, I couldn't help but be reminded of "the day the music died" as immortalized in Don McLean's "American Pie." Though as the poem went on, it felt less like that and more like "Eleanor Rigby." There were multiple stanzas driving home the point that the poet would be remembered by only his wife and his work would be lost to history. Then the inflection changed upwards as the work was rediscovered by some nondescript person, and now it finds new life in a contemporary setting. But...the poet himself remains lost and forgotten.

One comment I'd like to make: Stanza four, whether accidentally or not, has all four lines rhyming with each other. None of the other stanzas have this, making it stand out in my mind. Plus the varying numbers of syllables make it hard to establish a rhythm as I read it in my mind.