Silent Sleep The Dead Poem by Valsa George
Silent Sleep The Dead
Though the sun had begun bleeding in the West
With an explorer's gait, I walked jumping over gutters
My track, flanked with knee high grass and nettles
Also wild bushes of all kinds that grew in clusters
I saw dragonflies whirring around in circles
Their wings catching glints of the evening light
As they buzzed from one blade of grass to the other
Giving a solitary soul benign company and sure delight
Strange enough, my track ended in an open space
Enclosed by cracked walls, now a forlorn territory
There are raised mounds, overgrown with weeds
I can easily make out, it is an ancient cemetery
In these ancient graves sleep the silent dead
Their toil and trouble ended with life
They must have been perhaps heroes of the land
No more are they part of world's victory or strife
Nor its sad commemorations or triumphant jubilees
Though released from the shackles of oppression
Each dear presence has now become an absence
Here they lie anonymous, without a single possession
Some graves are marked by crosses and headstones
But most of them are nameless, worn out by time
We do not know how or when came their end
Did they die in old age or die in their prime
Or perish in a battle or struck by some pestilence
However their names are blotted out from life's tome
They have become inseparably one with the elements
And they lie here motionless exuding a strange calm
Generations pass and their progeny comes
Unmindful of who lived before them
Neither thankful of the legacy left behind
Nor thinking, all the comforts, from their toil stem
Oh Death! You are the mighty leveler of lives
With your indiscriminate hands when you strike
All differences are ironed out, all distinctions erased
Devoid of any rank, here sleep the king and the slave alik
It is glad that you have completed five hundred poems here in the base of life and death. The essence of the poem is nice and touching. Here i quote....Oh Death! You are the mighty leveler of lives With your indiscriminate hands when you strike All differences are ironed out, all distinctions erased Devoid of any rank, here sleep the king and the slave alike It is really a beautiful poem. Visited time and again.
Valsa often writes her poems in the classical style of Persian and Urdu poets, though she does not know Persian or Urdu. Starting a poem with a few introductory stanzas, then coming to the main topic and ending with the essence of the poem. Here is the essence of this marvelous poem: - Oh Death! You are the mighty leveler of lives With your indiscriminate hands when you strike All differences are ironed out, all distinctions erased Devoid of any rank, here sleep the king and the slave alike
Thank you Akhtar ji for this glowing comment...... I feel so delighted! !
It is difficult to single out any one of your poems as the best or my favorite, as you are a talented writer. But this effort was worth reading over many times and going on my favorites list. What fortune to have your 500th be so marvelous, meaningful and profound.
Thank you Kelly for your lovely comment and the honour of including my 500th poem in your favourite list
Congratulations, Valsa ji. Once again, I have seen the shades of nature do a prologue in this terrific poem and set the stage against the backdrop of a cemetery for a solemn and sombre dramatic act about the inevitability of death and how it does impact the dead or their future generations or the absence of any impact, whatsoever. The concluding stanza sums it all beautifully in a philosophical manner. Thanks for sharing the poem which is no less than a feast to the mind and the spirit of a reader.
Thank you so much Rajnish sir for your beautiful comment! I feel 'great'! With such flair for English language, I always regret that you do not write poems in English, though you often write poems in Hindi your Mother tongue
Certainly one of the best poems I have read in a while. Excellently expressed, wonderfully written and powerfully penned. Congratulation to you dear Lady Valsa on your 500th. You are a queen among poets!
Thank you Simon for this generous words of appreciation! I am humbled!
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Delivering Poems Around The World
Poems are the property of their respective owners. All information has been reproduced here for educational and informational purposes to benefit site visitors, and is provided at no charge...
5/2/2024 6:42:24 PM # 1.0.0.1119
Such beautiful poems! Only a person with true beauty within could write lines like you do. From each one of your poems that i have read I end up learning something. Like this one too. The stark lines so well penned draws one to the reality of life - and death. I have passed such cemeteries in India and i have so often felt the same thoughts; No matter how opulent a tomb one may build, the body, the soul, goes into dust. This is specially for you: You ARE ONE GREAT POET. You see things through your eyes and through the eyes of others. You write for yourself and yet it is the song what others go through. You see beauty from an ant to an elephant and from a pauper to a rich man. But for you the most important is Humanity. You are A Good Human Being. I feel humbled to write my comments for you or your poems. I am not worthy to rate you at all! ! ! you deserve a 100.