Post by johnadams on Sept 18, 2003 21:58:31 GMT -5
Hello all
I would have posted this in the Creative Minds section, but that appears to be rather an unpopular category from the number of people who hit it. So, if I might solicit some feedback, I would be grateful.
This is a poem that I wrote in the course of rereading Dante's Inferno. It was written with the "virtuous heathens" in mind. It's an interesting dynamic in the Inferno: the "people without sin", those including Virgil who committed nought but venial sins, and yet are shunted into limbo, neither punished nor rewarded. Ah, it's interesting that Dante, despite his hidebound Catholic devotion, seems to be using the bards and heroes of pre-Christian days as a prop for his faltering ego and above all courage. The ego aspect is obvious: As a poet, Dante needs certain incentives to write. He must feel that his vocation is historically appreciated and important. Anyway, here's the poem.
Hazing
Whence we all came streamlined and neat,
Fat to the bone and tall as tyrants in
Jewbaiting days.
But athirst from the startling delays
Of the desert, death and first thrust of sin,
Charon, with his oar, pouncing the pale, jejune meat.
Uppermost in this, at the
Falling-bridge of awareness stand the hazed,
Those unlisted, hectored men
All held lit in the absence of sin.
Mercenary God made allowances few
And these, our weary bards, slump amazed
Reigning shades in the verdigris
Of remote history.
I would have posted this in the Creative Minds section, but that appears to be rather an unpopular category from the number of people who hit it. So, if I might solicit some feedback, I would be grateful.
This is a poem that I wrote in the course of rereading Dante's Inferno. It was written with the "virtuous heathens" in mind. It's an interesting dynamic in the Inferno: the "people without sin", those including Virgil who committed nought but venial sins, and yet are shunted into limbo, neither punished nor rewarded. Ah, it's interesting that Dante, despite his hidebound Catholic devotion, seems to be using the bards and heroes of pre-Christian days as a prop for his faltering ego and above all courage. The ego aspect is obvious: As a poet, Dante needs certain incentives to write. He must feel that his vocation is historically appreciated and important. Anyway, here's the poem.
Hazing
Whence we all came streamlined and neat,
Fat to the bone and tall as tyrants in
Jewbaiting days.
But athirst from the startling delays
Of the desert, death and first thrust of sin,
Charon, with his oar, pouncing the pale, jejune meat.
Uppermost in this, at the
Falling-bridge of awareness stand the hazed,
Those unlisted, hectored men
All held lit in the absence of sin.
Mercenary God made allowances few
And these, our weary bards, slump amazed
Reigning shades in the verdigris
Of remote history.