THE DARKENING
Phil Roberts 1957 (Melbourne)
The darkening approacheth
To fill the land with terror,
A living, breathing, consuming form
A giant biological error.
The darkening will strip the land
Of everything that’s breathing,
Reducing the oasis to a wasteland
Before finally leaving.
Leaving a barren desert
With very little living there,
Then on the breeze, it vanishes
As light as living air.
But the air that hunts the living
To feast upon its blood,
Leaving none behind to tell
Of monstrous things, it’s done.
A giant soaring bat-winged form
Transparent, or so they say,
Reflected ‘gainst the moon at night
But invisible in the day.
It soars where the breeze takes it
Hunting and killing all it finds,
Until a barren lifeless place
Is all that’s left behind.
It reaches a thriving oasis
A paradise by the sand,
Yet when the darkening departs
No living creature stands.
It strips the land of plant life
It devours wildlife ‘cross the land,
Cattle, plants, and animals
Before it starts on Man.
The darkening leaves nought behind
No single living creature,
It strips the land of all its life
Leaving a barren, lifeless feature.
So when the darkening descends
It’s best to leave this place,
Just grab your kids and animals
And set off on a race.
A race to beat the darkening
Before its death descends,
A race against a hungry foe
Before your life doth end.
The darkening soars on the wind
Hunting far and wide,
Bones and brittle stalks are left
The signs of those who died.
The skull bone of some cattle
Perhaps the femur of a man,
To show that death upon the wind
Has stalked this wasted land.
THE END
© Copyright 2021 Philip Roberts
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Font size:
Submitted by PHIL_ROBERTS on May 30, 2021
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:25 min read
- 6 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XABA CDCD XEXE DXXX BFXF XXGH XCXX ICJK HAIA LGJG DLXM HNXN XKHC MXX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,582 |
Words | 286 |
Stanzas | 14 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3 |
Translation
Find a translation for this poem in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"THE DARKENING" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 Sep. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/101271/the-darkening>.
Discuss the poem THE DARKENING with the community...
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In