Ariel, the Thane of Wolverhampton

Yesterday and today and again tomorrow
regrets build up from day to day
to the last moment of my waning life
and all my yesterdays have guided me
towards my longed for death, so up yours, brief candle.

Life's just a passing sideshow, poor interval
to fill in the time between TV shows and football -
so pass another beer - life's just a ragged tail
wagged by an idiot, it's fags and sex and booze -
and then there's sod all left.

Know you whichever tempestuous idiot declar'd
O wonder how many goodly creatures are there here
how beautious whining mankind be
O brave new bloody pointless world
that has such people in't or some such futility
needeth yet her brains examining forsooth
and has ne'er seen Wolverhampton ill-lit by moonlight.

About This Poem

Last Few Words: In case you didn't recognise them, the quotes are from Macbeth and The Tempest.

Style/Type: Free verse

Review Request Intensity: I appreciate moderate constructive criticism

Editing Stage: Editing - polished draft

About the Author

Region, Country: London, Culture Capital of the World

Favorite Poets: Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke, Chaucer, Shakespeare to name but a few. And VERY IMPORTANTLY: Erich Fried, a leftwing Austrian of Jewish ancestry who fled the Nazis and became a British citizen in 1949., And, other writers (non-poets mainly): Raymond Chandler, Irvine Welsh, Anthony Burgess, Graham Greene, Charles Bukowski, John le Carré, Anthony Horowitz, Mick Herron, Margaret Attwood, Edna O'Brian, Maeve Binchy., Writers who I find vastly over-rated: TS Eliot, Virgina Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Phil Larkin, E.A. Poe, A. Ginsburg, Longfellow, Gerald Manley Hopkins (actually I LOATHE Hopkins more than damson-dappled words can say).

Comments

Geezer

5 years 1 month ago

How daintily...

you have expressed your regard for life on this plane! LoL
"And now, the accusation of the public
that withers your fruits upon the vine
As witnessed, by contempt, Hic* [Latin]
Proclaims all life devine.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Actually, I thought this rather good, but was puzzled by the word [in't]
is it a typo? ~ Geez.
.

Edna Sweetlove

5 years 1 month ago

Thanks for your comment...

... "in't" is a VERY poetic and olde worlde contraction of "in it"..

Geezer

5 years 1 month ago

I thought...

that might be the case, but wasn't sure. ~ Geez.
.

Edna Sweetlove

5 years 1 month ago

Bill the Bard wrote...

... "How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in 't!”

I was merely quoting - Edna the Bard of Greenwich....

Breakinglogic

5 years 1 month ago

Edna,

Edna,
I'm coming back to this, having read it a few days ago—when I was wearied as a waterfall-wading widgeon—and I connected what I couldn't connect at the time.
I love all of it.
BTW, your VERY poetic use of "in't" did not go unnoticed and, in fact, owes me a new pair of pants.
I love all the archaic words. Yesterday I DESTROYED a friend in hangman using "forsooth."
Wonderful poem, much enjoyed!

Edna Sweetlove

5 years 1 month ago

Sorry...

...to hear of your trouser accident.
.