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Latin: /'vɒks pɒpjʉliː/ VOICE OF THE PEOPLE



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Friday, September 10, 2010

"In Solemn's Bed" by Michael Goldsmid

Time slows, and with each fading tick
I wonder at what might have been
The glinting-gold tapestry has been woven,
And freed men have breathed
While the ground slithers black and a sundried youth
Bathe in a fettered silver dream

An unsmoothed curtain of heaving, rolling red
Clouds my broken vision and wets my bed.
The heart of time and breath is in me,
The cold of summer sun and falling hell
Are coming undone

I've spent my life in quiet limbo,
In unfound promise and glittering regret,
Days have past, detached and loosened from myself,
From that on which my heart was set

In custardy and sun-filled youth
I dreamed of being great and true and wise,
Of an ideal that I have failed
Free me, find me, fetch me, feed me, fail me
A blood-red fruit has fallen from its tree.

Have I spent a single moment drinking in life's honeyed milk?
Has meaning filled me, or covered my tracks?
Or should I thank you for what was?
As I sit in Solemn's bed and inhale a stale, quiet dread.
I think of a life well lived, well fed
If I should stand on the threshold of eternal rest,
And be invited in,
I might hope that a life's time was used closely,

And that I do not stand alone and think
Without flaxen life's evanescent ink.

5 comments:

  1. A poem with deep descriptive qualities. Purposefully lacking direction that ties in with the theme of sloth and loitering.

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  2. wow Emile really? Is that what you think the poem is about: sloth and loitering?

    I didn't get that vibe at all.

    Maybe Mickael mustexplain what he meant?

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  3. ya micheal i dont get it tell us what you mean

    ReplyDelete
  4. Emile is half-right. Its about time, essentially and how we use it.

    "Bathe in a fettered silver dream" - the youth is trapped by ideals of their own and others" - this line questions reality. Another reference to ideals is "I dreamed of being great and true and wise,
    Of an ideal that I have failed"

    The character is ill "An unsmoothed curtain of heaving, rolling red clouds my broken vision and wets my bed" and "In solemn's bed". S/he feels that her/his life should have been used better, s/he should have lived more.

    "Free me, find me, fetch me, feed me, fail me" = undisclosed, unachieved desires.

    "a blood-red fruit has fallen from its tree" - the moment has passed, s/he is about to die and time has been wasted.

    "The glinting-gold tapestry has been woven"/"Flaxen life" = life and time.

    "And that I do not stand alone and think
    Without flaxen life's evanescent ink" - this is a reference to Keats- When i have fears.
    = That s/he is not alone, without fulfillment, without life's evanescent - (quickly fading) - ink, without
    the possibility of creation, of creating meaning in life. This is ironic, because death would rob him/her of these things, so what s/he is really wishing is that s/he had made more of his/her life.

    More that anything is is a message to the living, i wanted it to be a reminder of sorts, so that people dont lead a life of quiet desperation, without fulfillment. Time is fickle, and life is short.

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  5. "lack of direction..."
    The speaker in the poem sounds confused, Mickael.

    ReplyDelete