Tags
death, hendecasyllabics, homage, life, Poem, Poetry, rebirth, Robert Frost, Sonnet, Tennyson
Greatest changes occur with life’s beginnings,
Sun-rays flooding the earth with pulsing seconds,
Time jerks forward with creature’s maiden stirrings,
Life sparks life, for the slower hour beckons.
Rainbows bringing rebirth to stagnant marshes,
Algae choking the reeds on water’s window,
Depths of motion in liquid circle thrashes
Until yellowing leaves have cast their shadow.
Living slows with the autumn closing shutter
Forcing light into night’s eternal darkness.
Cattails bend in the frosted lines of water
Giving homage, unmoving, frozen, timeless.
Freezing death can be seen the tender creeper;
Life rebirths into life, with death, the sleeper.
Note: This poem is written in eleven syllable lines, hence the hen-deca. This poem is written with the anglicized meter of Catullus, a famous Latin poet. I also wrote this using the rhyming form of a Shakespearean sonnet.
Other well-known hendeca-syllabic poetry include “Hendecasyllabics” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson and “For Once, Then, Something” by Robert Frost.
Please also note, that Tennyson’s poem to his critics contained the name of the type of poem as its title. In a way, Frost was a clever poet and did the same thing…as “For Once, Then, Something” can be seen as “For One, Ten, Something” (One-ten being how eleven is formed in hen-deca). Also note, that Frost, in using that as his title and as the last phrase of his poem, likens the title as the “white pebble” of his poem, the hidden truth, which I believe his critics failed to realise. Very sneaky….
Another great exposition of Frost’s poem can be found at http://poemshape.wordpress.com/2009/04/26/frost-henddecasyllabics-for-once-then-something/
Last and not least…it’s open link night over at dVersePoets.
wow…nicely done on the form and meter…above my pay grade….ha….but i love the cattails bening low in homage…that is a beautiful stanza….very cool
The meter is odd to write with as English doesn’t want to fit well. It ends up having a nice rhythm when written right. Tennyson actually used long and short vowels like the Romans, instead of accents like we do. Thanks for the comment Brian. 🙂
never heard about catullus…need to check him out..well done on the meter…i love the Sun-rays flooding the earth with pulsing seconds..
‘Life rebirths into life, with death, the sleeper.’
And so it does. I find autumn sad as nature sleeps its death, however your words bring a certain beauty to it.
Anna :o]
Thank you, Anna.
That was interesting — again, not too many obscure allusions. I got it.
I loved this line: “Cattails bend in the frosted lines of water”
But “homage” in the next threw me — I expected a “homage to someone/something” but why? Why can’t they just bend as a sign of dying and not something humble or nobel or honoring something else. Just my questions.
The homage from Catullus “cattails” to Robert Frost and his poem mentioned above… hence Frosted lines of water.