The Toll :: Writers Block Poetry Contest Week 3
(moving along, nothing to see here)
I can't say how entirely recognizable my poem's style is compared to my towering reference point, but since my high school days I was always enamored with Lord Byron. Hell, even his name was cool, and back in my school days that actually meant something. Now, that I'm older, coolness is less important. But Lord Byron is still cool.
Damn, that's a lot of black paint.
Even his portraits are dark.
Some of his work stuck with me for a long time as an illustration of how to tell a story in poetic form, and how all rules could be broken. Specifically, I loved the complete disregard of stanzas and line breaks in Darkness. And his imagery was so rich and varied. And... it held no small weight for me that the theme of the poem was of ... darkness. Perfect.
The Writers Block Poetry Contest Week 3 theme is to write in the style of your favorite poet. So I wrote this, as a long poetic journey, inspired by the formless darkness of Lord Byron's Darkness.
The Toll
Title Photo by @negativer
Byron Photo by @Wikipedia
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whether it is a bell that tolls to usher in the next life, or the toll that comes from fleeing time encapsulated by a nihilistic emptiness, there is a pacing about this. a certain frantic-ness a reader can't help but get caught up in.
enjoy how you let the reader wander through older, forgotten things, as our narrator wonders through older, forgotten things (the dead), then pull this together with the snap back to the graveyard with the weeds metaphor:
my favorite passage might be these lines that reside in the most Byron (and, by that, I mean, use of the most black paint) part of your piece:
It's a clever telling of death, a bit of fate in the wind, again appealing to the reader to take heed and listen, for silence is heard.
if i had to choose, would be my favorite line from this piece. This line, to me, tells the story of poem in a line; a thief of shadow fleeing an all encompassing terror that is and always will be.
All in all, the question becomes "'how much more black could this be?' and the answer is 'None. None more black.'"
thank you for the share, @negativer, a bleak read and, the longest stride taken, i flee this piece and will see when time brings me inevitably back.
I appreciate the amount of time you spent reading and thinking about my words, @carmalain7. It's always an insight for me to see how different things reflect off others.
If even a short couple lines remind you of Byron, then that enough is a compliment indeed.
None. None more black is a great statement. The origin of my username (negativer) was a play on how negative something could possibly be. And if it could be more negative than negative, would it be ... negativer? Yes. And thus my name :)
Thanks again!
hey mate, pales in comparison to what you put in - just want to let you know that the effort shows, the read was fun and you sharing was appreciated. Plus, I know how insightful it can be to see a piece through the eyes of a reader; hoping I could, at the very least, give you that.
This poem deserves more love, imo, but poetry can be imposing to comment on - all the world is a stage, I'm playing my part.
remind me of Byron?! I was thinking you should be careful before people start calling you Lord before you're even landed, mate!
But no, it truly was a fun read - big fan of a lot of Byron's works, and thought this was a great tribute. Also, none more negative is exactly what that is, haha - love the naming story; thank you for the share, @negativer.
You've managed to capture the essence of Byron without the over-the-top dramaticism which unfortunately sometimes tinged his writing. The result walks in beauty , with no regrets and is hard to forget.
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Dark, heavy, chilly; I like it.
Thanks!
Something about the image of "bitten free" and then running to outrun time itself really hit home. I've not read a lot of Lord Byron's stuff, but this is great poetry in its own right.