April 02, 2012

To a Demon

To a Demon
I affirm, by the boasting in you which I
have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

It told me that I had to bow,
That God was gone, and gone was light-
That Legion ruled my spirit now,
That I was but a slave.
I laughed intrepid: Bow to whom?
To wicked fiends the like of you?
Let this my flesh be Legion’s tomb!
I serve the Lord Most High.
It furrowed angrily its brow
And, like a madman drunk with spite,
It staggered close and made a vow:
Tonight you’ll meet the grave.
I fear not dark, I mocked, nor gloom;
Nor do I fear the lies you spew.
I'm saved from your eternal doom,
For daily do I die!

-jwm




Of the Poem (Poetic Parameters):

Stanza
: The poem is essentially four quatrains combined into a single stanza.

Meter
: Every fourth line consists of a six syllable count, or a dimeter; the remaining lines are done in tetrameter (i.e. eight syllables per line).

Rhyme Scheme
: abac dedf abac dedf (notice that the rhythmic structure of stanzas 1 and 3 correspond to one another, as does stanza 2 and 4).

5 comments:

P.J. said...

once again, the master speaks -
so the room of acoustics make us believe;
else we wouldn't hear or find leaks
that is the mouths which release what we all grieve...

o every word is stress'd -
his voice go through our bodies,
but stay nonetheless
until tears leave the people's eyes
of grudging confess

_____

Oh, well, just me playing (and messing - i'm sure there is some grammatical mistakes) around before sleep... I thought "once again, the master speaks" when I read this poem, "To a Demon", 'cause that's what you are - a master!

BerlinerinPoet said...

"I fear not dark, I mocked, nor gloom;
Nor do I fear the lies you spew.
I'm saved from your eternal doom,
For daily do I die!" Amen!

This is amazing, John. Thank you for posting this.

Monica said...

really wonderful. this is your original work? May I re-post with links/credit to you and your blog? www.perfumepharmer.com

Norma said...

I found your blog quite by accident and I'm so glad I did. I'm really enjoying reading your poems. You are very talented and I love that you use different poety forms. This poem is excellent :)

Norma said...

I found your blog quite by accident and I'm so glad I did. I'm really enjoying reading your poems. You are very talented and I love that you use different poety forms. This poem is excellent :)

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