[poem] Sestina: A Night At The Opera

Jul 20, 2010 09:38

Title: Sestina: A Night At The Opera
Author: motley_sis
Genre: sestina, octosyllabic
Rating: G     Warnings: Confusing?  Veuillez m'excuser, mon petit chou!
Notes: Refers to opera Faust (FR/EN), Acte Quatrième, scene VIII No.26: Mort de Valentín.
[edit] After months of deliberation oblivion - also posted here.

Summary: Dorothy attends a viewing of Faust at the opera house and remembers...

For crisp_autumn.   Happy birthday!  \(^O^)/


Con forza, Valentín's last song
reverberates, and curdles blood,
like sweltering Summer ends Spring;
makes it naturally reform-
While men ponder and ladies cry,
Dorothy clutches at her heart.

...In a forest she knows by heart,
she listens to Valentín's song:
a tremulous and splendid cry
resounds.   He is of noble blood;
keen, well-bred, and a handsome form
against the lush backdrop of Spring.

Dorothy approaches with spring
in her step, and pouring her heart
out with praise:  "Treize, will you perform
again tonight? Please, sing this song."
A small nod of his head.  "My blood-
relations, however, may cry."

"Why would such beauty make them cry?"
Smiling, he leads her to a spring.
"Most people, dear cousin, think blood
is better kept close to the heart;
an internal affair."   His song,
then, took a much more poignant form.

Today, in its remembered form,
the beauty of it makes her cry-
Valentín's bitter dying song,
hummed softly as they crossed the spring,
strengthened their bond: from heart to heart
with accord-more viscous than blood...

Here, Dorothy ponders lost blood
and passions that seemed so conform
the rules of life and her own heart;
and that tremulous, splendid cry
-like Winter is pounced on by Spring-
resounds in this baritone's song.

Yet-boiling blood and tears to cry
    together form the sizzling spring
    from which her heart distils its song.

char: dorothy catalonia, char: treize khushrenada, * octosyllabic, * poem, * sestina, # dedication/gift, fandom: gundam wing

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