By John M, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link
You, too, have come where the dim tides are hurled
Upon the wharves of sorrow, and heard ringThe bell that calls us on; the sweet far thing.’ —W.B. Yeats
A Blood Rose Victory
The stars fall as the last light of day fades. Tails of fire light up the coming darkness. Even the heavens mourn.
We stand among our fallen. I see the friends I laughed with a fortnight ago. How we laughed at our own bawdy stories by the fire, passing the ale horn around. Now, their last expressions of surprise and sorrow are all they show. All to possess a land whose cost we cannot bear.
The bell rings now. I know not who brought it, or where from. It’s clang echoes across this windswept plain. The Tuatha De Danann have fled, and the song of the bell will surely keep them away.
It just fails to console us that lie exhausted among our dead on this field of our victory.
blood-drenched tide
tears on this wharf of sorrow
never dry
the shattered ale horn rots
beside my friend’s marred hand
The November Meteors by Étienne Léopold Trouvelot, 1868
for Jane Dougherty’s A Month with Yeats: Day Fifteen and Poets United–Midweek Motif–Meteor Showers
UPDATE: And for dVerse poets pub MTB: Symbolism (12/7/17)
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Powerful as Yeats, indeed! I get a sense of a visitation of the dead, riding on the meteors. It makes me wonder if anyone in the poem was left alive.
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Thanks, Susan!
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I can hear the bell tolling and see the rotting ale horn, a powerful poem.
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Thank you, John!
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is it about some mythology? seems like the story of fallen heroes.
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The earlier Yeats quotes inspired Tanka that addressed the legendary invasion of Ireland by the Iberian Celts. The latest lines inspired me to consider the aftermath of the decisive battle of that invasion. A story of fallen heroes indeed.
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And yet the Gaels did manage to keep what they had won. It’s the Tuatha De we miss now.
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Indeed!
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Unless devoid of humanity, I guess it hard to find consolation in victory gained in blood and death.
A powerful poem indeed.
Anna :o]
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Thanks, Anna!
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I hear that bell tolling. Creative and powerful poem, Frank.
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Thanks, Purple!
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You brought this home. “Even the heavens mourn”, and the fallen’s expressions of surprise and sorrow. Sigh. Thanks for speaking the intolerably high cost of war.
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My pleasure, Sherry. Thank you for your kind feedback!
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Painfully beautiful, evocative, Frank. This one will stay with me for a while. (I lost my father who I never knew in WWII).
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Thank you, Victoria. I’m sorry about your father.
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Nice use of the stars falling.
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Thanks!
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The red tide and the wharf of sorrow… a wonderful poem of sadness in the midst of victory, For whom the bell tolls… for all!
Dwight
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Indeed! Thanks, Dwight!
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The price of victory is very costly and we will cherish those lives forever~
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Beautiful, full of meaning, heartfelt.
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My response is as of the 16 Nov. Frank.
Kind regards
Anna :o]
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Thanks, Anna.
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I love your haibuns. This is a compelling tale…..but who are the
Tuatha De Danann ?
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They are the people of the Goddess Danu—the legendary primordial, supernatural inhabitants of Ireland:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuatha_D%C3%A9_Danann?wprov=sfti1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuatha_D%C3%A9_Danann?wprov=sfti1
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Thanks 😊- got it!
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Thirty five percent Irish and I didn’t know this story, but love the Yeats quote. You have a way with words leaving us wanting more.
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Thanks! You didn’t hear the story because it’s original, although inspired by the myth of the Tiara de Danan and Morgan Llewlan’s Bard.
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I have never felt that victory can be gained in battle… the best battle is the one we can avoid… that said there are moments when we cannot choose
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