One Sorrowful Truth
Matthew Franklin Allen 1991 (Cleveland, Ohio)
March 24He persuaded a hate
in a phase of elation,
and devised a vain plot:
Large-scale extermination;
A genocidal notion for elimination;
The tragic operation:
Eradicate them, through and through.
First, relinquish possessions
And tear whole families in two.
Leave them grasping to the Cliff of Life with nothing else to lose.
He installed ignorance,
and like cattle up a ramp,
they board without question
Into the freights black and damp.
A fateful ride on Hell's rails to a Nazi death camp.
The simple freedoms once known
were privileges left stranded.
Some naked, showered, shaven,
stripped of surname and branded;
The "less than fortunate" others dug unmarked graves to land in.
He devoured morale;
This was not a meager meal;
As opposed to their fill:
Grass stew from the barren field,
A scrap of bread crust and a choice: hoard or yield?
The faint and lost expressions
shone at the grueling toils they faced
while fear formed a foul aura
And a pungent stench of death traced.
Arduous times called for tests of faith in a desolate place.
He darkened a people,
yet they strive to overcome
one grim, sorrowful truth
Of their fellow kin gone numb.
A telltale purpose reigning from the Cloudy Kingdom.
About this poem
I had written this poem as an English project in 11th grade. The project had us write (using any format) about the Holocaust. My teacher, Mrs. Williams, said it had "award-winning potential", and I have not ever attempted to submit it into a poetry contest, until now.
Written on March 12, 2008
Submitted by IntoIntuition on March 29, 2024
- 1:10 min read
- 46 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XAXAA ABCBX XDADD XXAXX XXXEE CFXFX XGXGG |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,204 |
Words | 235 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
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"One Sorrowful Truth" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/184968/one-sorrowful-truth>.
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