Cold Grave

Written by drtaher

August 12, 2008

(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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Author’s Note: The sestina was invented by Arnaud Daniel and is considered one of the more difficult forms of writing poetry. It is non-metered, non-rhyming and uses six words that are repeated in different order at the end of each line through all the six sestets, and then used in the middle and ending of the three lines of the envoi that follows all the six sestets.

In my poem, the six words were:

A: cold
B: stone
C: dark
D: silence
E: light
F: dream

Hope you all enjoy the poetry. I did, too.

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COLD GRAVE

The Sestets:

ABCDEF

I have reached here in biting cold,
To look down upon the unwavering stone,
My heart — it feels so lonely and dark,
Its scream pervades the silence.
Hark! Do I see ahead some light?
Or have I ambled into a silly dream?

FAEBDC

Oft, I lapse into a torpid dream,
Of my mind being seized by hands so cold,
‘Ere my feet dance, so free and light,
The weight of my past sinks like a stone,
And all around me is a deathly silence
of unending sadness, mystery and dark.

CFDABE

This happened in an era of no gloom or dark,
When Beauty ruled, as if ’twas a dream,
There was no strife, just peace and silence,
Through all the seasons, hot or cold,
No mind an evil, no heart of stone,
Just heavenly bliss, sunshine and light.

ECBFAD

Her dance on Mother Earth, so feathery and light,
Her cheeks so fair, her tresses, so dark,
Jumping on brooks, from stone to stone,
She ruled our world, ’twas a joyous dream,
Once she sneezed and caught a nasty cold,
Now she’s gone, and left behind a silence.

DEACFB

Joy there is none, only a gloomy silence,
Hearts have gone dead and there is no light,
Warmth there is none, only a stark cold,
As down on the earth descends a menacing dark,
The good old days were but an evanescent dream.
I remember all this as I bend to kiss the stone.

BDFECA

The lines of eulogy are etched upon this stone,
And in the whole graveyard is a pin-drop silence,
The wind rustles leaves, blowing away my dream,
The gloom — it shifts, and there is a shaft of light,
It falls upon the grave, piercing the all-surrounding dark,
As I stand there thinking, shivering in the morning cold.

The Tercet or the Envoi

Alisha is dead and cold and I stare down in silence (A and D)
Hard is her head-stone, and shines on it the Godly light (B and E)
There is no more any Dark, and I live again the Dream (C and F).

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Possibly Related poems:

Crowned Poem, English Poetry

Comments

Comment by VishVnand on 13 August, 2008 @ 9:52 am

Beautiful, Meaningful & Fantastic.
Enjoyed reading it immensely.

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Comment by renu rakheja on 13 August, 2008 @ 10:45 am

Awesome ! And thanks for enlightening us.We will add this as a note in the ” Forms of poetry: in the forum.

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Comment by preeti datar on 13 August, 2008 @ 11:34 am

Now, we do more poets like you who’re ready to exlore the various poetry forms and also educate us about the same. This does sound difficult to write. I think the hardest part would be to compose each sestes so that they make sense!

I’m inspired. I’ll try this poeyry form!

Keep writing!!

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Comment by U L H A S on 14 August, 2008 @ 11:05 pm

Good….good…..and very good…..

Cant imagine trying it now with a different topic, too hard to do it, but with experience I would try if life still keeps poetry as interesting over other topics in life.

Great poem…5 Stars * * * * *

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Comment by drtaher on 15 August, 2008 @ 2:40 pm

Thank you all for your absolutely fantastic comments and your FIVE stars!

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Comment by krishna on 16 August, 2008 @ 1:20 am

Though late than never…
A fantastic concept and amazingly well written…
Would love to try this form but its quite complicated…

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Comment by Apoorv on 24 August, 2008 @ 3:53 am

nice….. and i liked the form of poetry too… should try writing one sometime….

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