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Preterition - (A relatively timeless sestina)
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Preterition - (A relatively timeless sestina) |
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Nan
Administrator
Member Seraphic
since 1999-05-20
Posts 21191Cape Cod Massachusetts USA 
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Is it too late for a Sestina??? ...um... This took me a month to write... because I was sick and then I had to organize Ron's birthday party... and I have 120 kids to deal with every day... and it's really all relative anyway, because it's only a new millennium in preterit time....... Is that a good enough excuse?? PRETERITION Vast epochs cast as fossiled specks in time, Striated tombs interred throughout the world Lend touchstone sediments to advent's kind. Thenceforth anon wends evolution's change; As harbinger, the nascency of life, Foretold of destinies fulfilled this day. Lost relics note Paleozoic day. Emergent firstlings from the womb of time, Prelusive tenets of all earthly life, Predate the Great Divides about this world. Mute artefacts boast evidence of change; That sapience upstood in rightly kind. Caved scriveners carved etchings of first kind, Scribed signatures of juvenescent day. 'Til Cheop's spire spake enigmatic change, All messengers of pre-recorded time; Colossal seemed as wonders of the world Bore witness to the rudiments of life. In Ancient East rose early factioned life. Societies of City-States in kind, Civilizations aimed to rule the world, Grand Empires fallen remnants of lost day. A Golden Age quelled Medieval time And Renaissance of spirit enscribed change. One metamorphic centenary change, Transmutant of simplistic way of life. Extensive progress unsurpassed in time, Unfounded passage for all humankind. The precipice of scientific day Defines existence of a modern world. Futurity rends visions for our world; Endurance yet a quest subject to change. What imminence befalls untrodden day, As man espies intergalactic life? A Universe alone 'tis naught mankind; An Age is but a second lest mistime. Temporal world yields pendency to life; Millenniums' change plenary in kind. Man's day a flicker in senescent time. |
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Munda Member Elite
since 1999-10-08
Posts 3544The Hague, The Netherlands |
It's never too late for you Nan.  To be honest, I think I will never even try a Sestina.  Wanna know what I think ? LOL You'll have to go to Open#5 ! Couldn't help myself......I had to.  |
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Poertree Senior Member
since 1999-11-05
Posts 1359UK |
Nan This is absolutely excellent .. rarely have i reached for my dictionary as much as i had to when reading this for the first time .. i love new words and that only served to enhance the poem for me .. so thanks. Philip |
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jbouder Member Elite
since 1999-09-18
Posts 2534Whole Sort Of Genl Mish Mash |
Excellent work here, mon professor. And if both pedantic Knave Philip & the whiffling JimBouderWocky are not put off by your tardiness then I don't think you have anything to worry about. Jim "If I rest, I rust." - Martin Luther |
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Not A Poet Member Elite
since 1999-11-03
Posts 3885Oklahoma, USA |
After all, I believe it is your class. But I would be constantly on guard for the various spitballs flying around in here recently, not to mention tacks in chairs and whacks on the head. Also, I think someone (who shall remain unnamed) may have put a disected frog in your desk.  Gads, if Philip had to refer to his dictionary, imagine mine now, as its pages begin to smolder from the friction of rapid thumbing. Pete What terms shall I find sufficiently simple in their sublimity -- sufficiently sublime in their simplicity -- for the mere enunciation of my theme? Edgar Allan Poe |
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Poertree Senior Member
since 1999-11-05
Posts 1359UK |
Nan I had to come back and look at this again mainly to convince myself that I could enjoy it as a poem with meaning rather than as simply a series of words with great meter and flow. As I understand it the central theme is the insignificant of man in the vast span of time. The poem is essentially devoted to a recitation of man's "achievements" as stanza by stanza we move from the first emergence of intelligence to, in the penultimate stanza, a change to a questioning stance about the future. The very last line sets the whole of the preceding poem in context concluding that, seemingly great to man, man's mark upon the vast expanse of time is in fact insignificant. I am still struggling with the exact meaning of the lines: Thenceforth anon wends evolution's change and That sapience upstood in rightly kind and Temporal world yields pendency to life if you have time I'd love to have some clarification on those. I know what the words mean individually but I can't connect them in a way which makes much sense .. lol. Meanwhile I guess I can go along with the premise set out in this sestina provided that we can agree that we are talking here about "material" man. Man's day is indeed insignificant when measured against time, but then in my view time itself is insignificant (indeed irrelevant) when viewed from a stance of spiritual reality.. Interesting poem, interesting theme and while at first I thought you had embarked upon a kind of "vocabulary challenge", I actually think now that the somewhat unwieldy words actually add to the feeling of the hugeness and ponderous nature of time itself. .. like it even more now Philip |
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Skyfyre Senior Member
since 1999-08-15
Posts 1906Sitting in Michael's Lap |
Caved scriveners carved etchings of first kind, Scribed signatures of juvenescent day. 'Til Cheop's spire spake enigmatic change, All messengers of pre-recorded time; Loved those lines especially, but the whole thing was exquisite! Well worth the wait! LOL -- and look out, I hear the Webster syndicate has a bounty on thy most prolifigate and vocabularious (hehe look that one up!) head! ;> --Kess Full fathom five thy father lies, Of his bones are coral made, Those are pearls that were his eyes; Nothing of him that doth fade But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange... --William Shakespeare, from The Tempest |
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