Some Academic Poetry

Although it's Spring Break, I haven't been completely vegetative. Since I've had so much free time on my hands, I decided to work on an assignment I have for my British Literature 2 class. We've read a lot of different works by different authors, and for this assignment we are supposed to pick a poem and model our own poem from it, with a different spin. So, I decided to take the intro from William Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" and model my poem on it. The gist of Blake's introduction is that organized religion came along and ruined everything. My poem is not so complex. It's still a work in progress, but I'll let it speak for itself.

Here's Blake's introduction:

THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL

THE ARGUMENT

Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the burden'd air:

Hungry clouds swag on the deep.

Once meek, and in a perilous path,

The just man kept his course along

The vale of death.

Roses are planted where thorns grow,

And on the barren heath

Sing the honey bees.

Then the perilous path was planted,

And a river and a spring

On every cliff and tomb,

And on the bleached bones

Red clay brought forth;

Till the villain left the paths of ease,

To walk in perilous paths, and drive

The just man into barren climes.

Now the sneaking serpent walks

In mild humility,

And the just man rages in the wilds

Where lions roam.

Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the burden'd air;

Hungry clouds swag on the deep.

Here's my poem:

THE MARRIAGE OF MUSIC AND DANCE

THE TRANSFORMATION

The crowd roars and waves its limbs in impatient angst:

Behind stage the wanted waits.

Once meek, and apprehensive to dance,

The shy girl nodded and swayed while

Learning language.

In time she bloomed and bolder grew,

Without humility

She freed her body.

Then the spell was cast upon her,

And the music spoke to her

Through intertwined harmony,

The melody and beat

Her only need;

Now she roams the crowd unpinned and smiles,

Her movement opens space, she holds

A conversation of sound and mime.

The free girl lets herself go

With the music’s flowy beat,

Motion is natural to her now, she

Dances fluently.

The crowd roars and waves its limbs in harmonious glee;

The music has set it free.