The denouement of an odd farce
Chose an odd hour to intrude
"An unjust twist!" cried the spectators
Their fate was to behold and lament
"Devil take the wretched playwright
Blasted be his deplorable whims!" swore they
And at once echoed the proprietor's voice:
"I am he who scribbled the script
With the mighty quills of destiny
Hearken the truth, O deluded oafs
Death is the father of untainted equity
Under whose aegis thrives rectitude
For the final justice is mortal's right
Swear not but hail that inevitable reason
Grieve not but envy the fortuity of those
Whose toils are now but things of past
If ye seek a charm to evade death
Unto ye I say, never be born!"
"How come?" quoth the sceptic audience
And the omniscient uttered hence:
"Forsake the gnawing sense of self
For restive waves of life shall rest in peace
And cease to break against the boulders of death
Once they recede from the shores of desire!"
"An unjust twist!" cried the spectators
Their fate was to behold and lament
"Devil take the wretched playwright
Blasted be his deplorable whims!" swore they
And at once echoed the proprietor's voice:
"I am he who scribbled the script
With the mighty quills of destiny
Hearken the truth, O deluded oafs
Death is the father of untainted equity
Under whose aegis thrives rectitude
For the final justice is mortal's right
Swear not but hail that inevitable reason
Grieve not but envy the fortuity of those
Whose toils are now but things of past
If ye seek a charm to evade death
Unto ye I say, never be born!"
"How come?" quoth the sceptic audience
And the omniscient uttered hence:
"Forsake the gnawing sense of self
For restive waves of life shall rest in peace
And cease to break against the boulders of death
Once they recede from the shores of desire!"
19 Mushrooms Sprouted:
"If ye seek a charm to evade death
Unto ye I say, never be born!"
Wonderful wonderful poem!
Reminds me of that other famous poem about dying..and how this seems to be an almost exact opposite..
"Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
Dear TUIB,
Your erudition keeps on amazing me. The other day, you talked of Bukowski in your blog. And then Ogden Nash and Roald Dahl and Milan Kundera. And Dylan Thomas now. Except Kundera, all the other names are new to me. Besides, the genuine interest you show in this blog, despite me being a scoundrel who doesn't that often comment in other blogs (I have not been able to keep up with the lesson Ketan gave me, since my internet access is limited)....it is incredible.
As for the poem, you could see that 'NIRVANA' is the philosophy upon which it is loosely based.
Thank You for your goodness & Keep Visiting!
Wonderful poem !
There r so many poems about Death,but ur poem is very heart touching.There r so many new names in ur poem.
Wonder full.
Work from home India
Dear Nagesh,
Thank you for visiting and commenting.....It is most gratifying....Keep Visiting :)
I miss your writing, Rohith, wud you please write some more now? :)
And I dont really know how far advanced your knowledge of Sanskrit is, but I'll write this still..
your poem reminds me of the Sanskrit aphorism, "Jaatasya Hi Dhruvo Mrityuh"
It means he who is born is destined to die..
In fact it is almost exactly what you wrote in those two lines..which is why I am so fascinated by them. :)
And I hope you find time to read my blog occasionally, thats alright for me. I totally understand if you cant comment. It'll be enuff if you find enuff time to write some more of this. :)
Dearest TUIB,
This is not the usual courteous reply that is part & parcel of the blogging etiquette.....Let me tell you, that I am indebted to you beyond measures.....
For quite some time now, I have been doubting the verity of my self-projection as an amateur writer, for various reasons. To be frank, it has been days since I peeped into "Rain".
And all of a sudden, an influx of goodwill from your part leaves me pleasantly dazzled......and that is the Muse I have been longing for.
I earnestly thank you.....
Gratefully,
Rohith :) :) :) :) :) :)
nice :)
Hii!!
1. I had to use a dictionary. :D
2. It took me a LOT of time to understand, and finally I did.
3. I think this poem is really, really good. :)
Exactly! I agree with TUIB! Those lines are my favorite too,
"If ye seek a charm to evade death
Unto ye I say, never be born!"
You know what this reminds me of? I don't know if you've read Harry Potter or not, but thats exactly what they're trying to say in the seven books: You just cannot escape death. There IS no charm to evade death.
This is reallyyyyyy good. :)
Hi Rohith!
Nice effort! Nice philosophy!
Mostly, because of being an atheist, my fear of death did not diminish reading this. :)
And God's logic did not appeal to me because life, even in its most painful moments (that I have experienced up till now) has been so beautiful that I find it highly addictive. I'm addicted to life. :)
I'm not sure if you've heard of Sigmund Freud. He'd given the concept of eros (the drive to live, in turn driven by desire to 'do'--libido) and thanatos--the desire to enter death-like state (e.g., sleep) to escape the pains in life.
And yes, this once had to use the dictionary only sparingly. ;)
Hope, the Bard approves of the length of this particular comment. ;)
And this humble reader is also curious, if the exercise of writing this poetry reduced the Bard's fear by any degree (assuming He harbored it, in the first place).
TC.
nice poem
@ Srishti & Ketan
The reply is outrageously belated. Sorry. But then, I had taken a stubborn resolution that only after posting another work shall I even visit my blog again(though I must admit that it wasn't carried out entirely to the spirit of the words). And today, after the dormancy, all I can say is Thank You
@ Nagesh, as, sm and most importantly, The Anonymous,
Gramercy ! Do Keep Visiting....
Rohith,
That your reply was belated is entirely understandable and acceptable, but that the encouragement I have provided you, is not being noticed (by you) is not!!! ;)
Okay, on a serious note, not to displease you, but the above comment by anonymous is spam, meaning, it is a copied and pasted message, which I have found on at least 100 blog posts of various bloggers up till now, and in all likelihood, was posted without reading your poem.
The only thing that puzzles me about this sort of spamming is the motive. Some other such spams (with clickable links) are attempted 'link farms' to improve one's Google PageRank (which in turn improves the positions of the links in Google search). I might do a post on this.
So my suggestion for such spammed comments is that they should be deleted (though it might break your heart considering how such spams sound encouraging, which is of course the preventive measure employed by ones thus spamming ;) ).
TC.
Dear Ketan,
Now, I must say that you are really an encyclopedia. And I see that you are such an avid and honest blogger. This is no adulation, dear friend...but really.
If I am to show my gratitude for you explicitly, it would seem flattering. Do you remember a certain Mahesh commenting upon your post 'God Only Knows'? Well, he's my friend - a person who, though not as erudite as you or even me, has got one of the soundest minds I have ever seen. I discuss with him, most of the postulates and ideas that you bring forth in your blog. I said this because it would be indicative of the influence that you generate.
By the way, I amn't heart-broken. To be frank, not even much bothered. I am thankful for every split of second that anybody spends in peeping at my blog. And if courtesy amounts to hypocrisy, then I must be a hypocrite.
TC
Hi again, Rohith!
Thanks for the appreciation!
Yes, I remember Mahesh's comment! It was reminiscent of what I used to believe myself, long back (considering the limited span I have spent on this Earth!).
This is just to digress a bit, but to repeat it, it doesn't bother me much whether a person is theist or atheist. If a person is rational and honest in light of what they know, and how much information they have gathered, then I would respect them. For instance, Isaac Newton was a firm believer in the existence of God, but for him, of all the scientists I have known, I have the highest regard.
Personally, had it not been a few fortuitous events in my life, I would have never developed sufficient interest in studies, and would have never got interested in science. :) You might find it interesting to note that there was around 6 to 7 years gap between my ability of critical thinking was first recognized and, I turned agnostic!
Turning atheist took just one more year.
In my class 4, I was taken to a psychiatrist on recommendation by my class teacher, suspecting me to be mentally retarded!
But I'll blog about all this later.
The reason I mentioned the spamming of that comment was only to help you distinguish between genuine appreciation (for instance, coming from me :) ), and insincere appreciation (coming from the spammer). So, to see the spammer's spam get appreciated had induced considerable envy in your truly! ;)
And since you were not aware of it being a spam, I simply cannot charge you of being hypocritical.
Lastly, even if I sound highly self-righteous on occasions, never do I forget my own instances of hypocrisy and double-standards. :) So, though hypocrisy is wrong, hardly anyone escapes it. The issue is only of degree of hypocrisy, and the frequency of indulging in it, and the intensity of remorse felt taking into consideration the severity of consequences.
TC.
Simply click on the following link to have some fun! ;)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Your+blog+keeps+getting+better+and+better%21+Your+older+articles+are+not+as+good+as+newer+ones+you+have+a+lot+more+creativity+and+originality+now+keep+it+up%21%22&btnG=Search
I read this again, and this time it reminds me of that other great poem about death, "Death, the Leveller" :)
Dear TUIB,
Thanks again for opening up a new vista. Never heard of the poem or the poet before. And to know that my scribble reminded you of such an evocative masterpiece is an honour to me and a crime against the great James Shirley :)
Haha! I'm sure the late and lamented Mr. Shirley wont mind in the least if he read it! :D But his is definitely one of my favourite poems about death, in addition to "Death, be not proud" by John Donne.
Post a Comment