*Third try.
Following today's Tolkienian theme, here is my first attempt at epic poetry. It's not the Odyssey, but I'm quite fond of it.
Across the dark ice and ocean deep
Through fires of rage and hot jealousy
Walked a warrior brave on his doomed quest
To fulfill a vow, by his father's behest.
For now friends and kin they have both flown
Against wretched deeds that can't be undone.
Alone he went with secret fear
For the Gem not lent, but stolen dear.
By night and by day he tracks it still
'Cross many a desert and many a year.
Now as ages pass and yet he lives
The vow of his father will not give,
"Neither I nor my sons will ever rest
Till the Gem of My Heart-what I love best-
Lays warm in my hand like a fluttering bird
And the fate of our enemies has been turned
To dust and ashes."
What a terrible vow! How lightly spoken.
But for our hero, not just a token
By his father's vow he left a home most fair
And a maiden sweet with heather in her hair.
Now years have passed and he cannot rest
Or stop the drive of his dreadful quest.
Always searching-now fruitlessly-
For a handmade Gem that had ceased to be.
For he himself had cast it in
To the fires of hell to absolve his sin.
For all those who died on his futile quest.
For the stone that his own father loved best.
For the same stone held another curse
That all who see it will forever yearn
To possess it, to hold it, to make it their own
Till all thought of duty and honor had flown.
When he felt the Gem flutter like a bird in his hand
And Desire burned on his heart like a brand,
In a dream he saw his homeland sweet
And with loved ones dear he did finally greet.
But the dream turned to horror-for the Gem's dark curse
Fell then on his own home and hearth.
He cast the Gem into a chasm deep
where the earth's hot blood did sometimes seep.
He felt its destruction like the end of all things
But the vow of his father in his soul still sings.
So he searches now and will forever
Search for the stone and but dream of the heather
That grows so softly on hillocks and vales
In the homeland for which he'll never set sail.
Comments