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The banshee knows that I am here and wails her cry
To let me know the time has come: a friend will die.
I feed another tree limb to the hungry flame.
I feel no guilt, nor do I seek a face to blame.
What time has passed to leak the life and drain it dry?
Old stars wheel overhead upon their dazzled sky
And sing their silent songs to deny, to deny!
That all things will pass away, and it is no shame.
The banshee knows that I am here.
And yet my time will never come until this eye
Goes dim. But will I know? What will I know as fly
My thoughts to face their fate beyond this world we claim?
Will there still be a me to answer to my name?
Come, banshee! Wail for me. From death I shall not shy.
The banshee knows that I am here.
Discussion (4)
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What could anyone add to that eloquence?
Except this: thanks so much for expressing it.
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I enjoyed your poem, Arahant.
It sent me to Google to look up “rondeau” and “banshee.” You don’t meet many rondeaus or banshees these days. Apparently a banshee announces that a death is coming; the Grim Reaper is death itself.
Those last two lines are dark, assuming the “I” of the poem is Mr. Arahant himself.
We’ve got plenty of life left to savor, Arahant. To hell with Banshees and Grim Reapers.
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Requiem aeternam dona ets, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat ets.
Te decet hymnus, Deus, in Sion,
et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem.
Exaudi orationem meam,
ad te omnis caro veniet.
Requiem aeternam dona ets, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat ets.
Grant them eternal rest, O Lord,
and may perpetual light shine on them.
Thou, O God, art praised in Sion,
and unto Thee shall the vow
be performed in Jerusalem.
Hear my prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come.
Grant them eternal rest, 0 Lord,
and may perpetual light shine on them.
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Indeed we do, Kent.
A point of view character does not always represent the author.