Robert Lindley | + Follow Poet |
Rhyme | + Fav Poem | Comment | Email | Print |

Of Lies Told That Once Destroyed Innocent Girls' Lives

https://www.poetryoutloud.org/poem/the-convergence-of-the-twain/

The Convergence of the Twain
                                                       ---  By Thomas Hardy
(Lines on the loss of the "Titanic")

*********************************************

Of Lies Told That Once Destroyed Innocent Girls' Lives
( Inspired after reading Thomas Hardy's famous poem
Titled-   The Convergence Of Twain,
(  Lines On the loss of the "Titanic"  )


Of Lies Told That Once Destroyed Innocent Girls' Lives
    
I
            In writhing agony she fell
           As under an accursed spell
Far away rang echoes of lies he tells.
          
II
           As sorrows wedded her to life
           Heart cut by invisible knife
World now  bequeathed misery and strife.

III
           No hope, her world turned to ash
           Each breath became another gash
She now felt each and every hard lash.

IV
           No pity could her sad aches cure
           He had won , of that she was sure
Gone  innocence of  what was once so pure. 

V
           Not fathoming why he lied
           She hung her pretty head and cried
She that was once her family's great pride.

VI
           Her life was now a blacken curse
           She composed her first death verse
For now living for her was by far worse.

VII
           As golden moon cast its bright beams
           Gone were her all romantic dreams
She waded into the deep icy stream.

VIII

           Praying death would be her new friend
           Her nightmare would come to an end
Into the cold depths she did so descend.

IX

           Later those lies he did confess
           Crying out for the entire mess
Begging for forgiveness from his sweet Bess.

X

           Finding only cold silence came
           Too late he saw the devil's game
He too entered the stream out of shame.

XI

           This  world had again TRUTH denied
           An innocent girl had died
People followed their ignorant pride.

XII

          Now life is too oft much the same
          To some life is but a mere game
Evil world cries- nobody is to blame.

Robert J. Lindley,  12-12-2020
Rhyme . (Tribute to Thomas Hardy)
********************************

********************************

The Convergence of the Twain
                                         --  By Thomas Hardy
(Lines on the loss of the "Titanic")

I
            In a solitude of the sea
            Deep from human vanity,
And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she.


II
            Steel chambers, late the pyres
            Of her salamandrine fires,
Cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres.


III
            Over the mirrors meant
            To glass the opulent
The sea-worm crawls — grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent.


IV
            Jewels in joy designed
            To ravish the sensuous mind
Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind.


V
            Dim moon-eyed fishes near
            Gaze at the gilded gear
And query: “What does this vaingloriousness down here?” …


VI
            Well: while was fashioning
            This creature of cleaving wing,
The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything


VII
            Prepared a sinister mate
            For her — so gaily great —
A Shape of Ice, for the time far and dissociate.


VIII
            And as the smart ship grew
            In stature, grace, and hue,
In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too.


IX
            Alien they seemed to be;
            No mortal eye could see
The intimate welding of their later history,


X
            Or sign that they were bent
            By paths coincident
On being anon twin halves of one august event,


XI
            Till the Spinner of the Years
            Said “Now!” And each one hears,
And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres.

Please Login to post a comment

Robert Lindley Date: 12/11/2020 3:35:00 PM After presenting my new blog on Thomas Hardy and the comparison of his poem -"titled- "The Man He Killed", I decided to sit down and composed a poem in honor of that great and famous poet. Of course not to try to imitate him but to do so in my own style and insight --and based upon a story a girlfriend once told me about what happened to her great-grandmother's best friend-- to a young innocent girl back in the 1880's. This poems speak to and about that attitude and society of that time. Login to Reply Robert Lindley Date: 12/11/2020 3:38:00 PM Where it was a norm that a man could destroy a girl's reputation by lying about her and the girl was then automatically deemed to be guilty. Such was then as it would be now -a horrific tragedy. The young girl in my friend's story ended her own life because of that lie.. A true tragedy..