I was out walking, in a graveyard in the rain. My Lady was not with me, but mayhap that was best. A ghost appeared. Or was he? I could not tell. He dressed in a fine swallow-tailed coat and wore a tall stovepipe hat and the rain glistened on his white bones.1
"I look," I said, "For the apex of human sorrow."2
"Then look not here," said he.3
"Where shall I look, then?" I said.4
"Where the mother expels the babe from her womb, where the cord is cut that severs her from him--at the moment he draws his first breath. At that moment occurs all sorrow and misery."5
"Then what shall I find here?" I said, knowing the answer.6
He took me to a grave of sandy red, where the rain fell in a pit like tears once shed. The box lay under stone and under earth, deathly fingers wrapping deathly turf.7
"There is the joy to end all joys. The love gained there is the only that naught can destroy."
Author notes
I wrote this after rehearsal for Romeo & Juliet, so Shakespeare was in my head.
A contest entry
- Halloween! by Lady Eventide.
100 points, ended November 23, 2008, 6 entries
Gold trophy winner
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Comments
1 - 10 of 10
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Interesting, and very short also. i liked it, anyway, well done.
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I love the lofty style of language (currently chewing on Virgil's The Aeneid). Birth is sorrow death is joy - the irony IS very Shakespearean, and perhaps a little abstruse given there's very little context elsewhere. Naturally, not a bad thing in literature. This is a nice piece of work.
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Thank you.
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Wow. I've actually read this about three or four times, really enjoying it each time...so I must say that it is very wonderful. Seriously. I read it a few days or so ago, then I forgot where I'd read it...it just seems to be so professional. Wonderful. FANTASTIC!
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Thank you very much!
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sweet
It makes sense Shakespeare was on your mind. It certainly had the feeling of old style writing. More like Dickens though. I liked it. And had a great moral!
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Haha, thank you. It is generally the case that I'll have one writer in my head and end up sounding like another. Ah well.
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Your mom.
And ergo iambic pentameter was in your head?beginning: 5, language: 5, plot: 4, ending: 1, dialog: 4, characters: 4.
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Too short, want more
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That's all there is. There is no more.
(-King Kong)
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