MY DEAD WIFE



MY DEAD WIFE

All ships left Boston's forbidding harbor.
I brought gold brandy in a flask.
To go to sea was a troubadour's task.
My mind was filled with blooms of an arbor.

The dreadful sun on the sails did glare
Upon my schooner, made of wood.
As the daylight died over the hills

I felt naked in my coat and my head was bare.
I certainly would have chosen to stay if I could,
But the ocean promised to cure my ills.

The caravan leapt into the waves
Like knives into a throng of billowing bread.
The captain pointed to the stars, then said:
"We sail to capture negro slaves."

Oh, how the Atlantic seemed endless to the eye!

Our creaking masts did tremble in the breeze.
Like a grove of sullen walnut trees,
They shook as they kissed the starless sky.

Neptune, Venus, and the Kraken's den
Awaiting to consume every soul on board
Yawned into one nebulous chord
Of a dismal hymn voiced by a siren.

At the center of the freezing brine
Which we reached in the span of three days time
I began to hear a queer stanza of rhyme
Which rose from the waves like forbidden wine.

Like Euripides' plays or Cicero's lines,
Like the dreams of Poe and Byron's sin
A terrible cold of horrors dove in
To my inner being, replete with signs:
Maritime warnings, of a vengeful ghost.
My sudden urge, my desperate impulse
Was to dive overboard from my wooden host.
Yet that was what SHE wanted most!

And my soul was thrown into the sea,
To a nameless fate
The Greeks called Hades.
And in that dark and baleful place
To my stark amazement I beheld her face,
Living only for eternal hate.
And then I recalled one black summer's eve
When I killed her with delight,
In a graveyard's isolation, where true death was wrought,
Bereft of all light,
And devoid of a witness (or so I thought) .

And in a prison beneath the oceanic floor
Each torrid moment is impossible to keep,
As I burn and weep
Forevermore.

John L. Zwerenz

About this poem

Narrative Verse

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Submitted by jimbrad44 on October 04, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:49 min read
9

Quick analysis:

Scheme X ABBA CDE CDE FGGF H IIH XJJX KLLK MNNMOXOO XPIQQPXRSRS XTTA E
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,850
Words 356
Stanzas 13
Stanza Lengths 1, 4, 3, 3, 4, 1, 3, 4, 4, 8, 11, 4, 1

John L. Zwerenz

John Lars Zwerenz BIOGRAPHY Queens College of the City University of New York, English, Graduate Student | Poetry John Lars Zwerenz is an impressionistic, classical poet. He is currently one of the best selling poets in The United States. He is also considered the most important new literary figure in the world, both internationally and in The United States. After serving as a journalist since the early 2000's Zwerenz was hired as the official poetry writer for Emage International, a popular in print arts publication. In addition, he has published twelve books of poetry and two novellas, all of which have risen dramatically in price since their original publication. Zwerenz owns a B.A. in English Literature from The City University Of New York At Queens College and has traveled extensively throughout The United States and overseas as a kind of literary wanderer. He has held a bohemian reputation since his youth. Two of Zwerenz' poetry books, Ecstasy And Other Poems, released in December of 2016, and Elysian Meadows, released in February of 2017, both peaked at number 1 on Amazon for all new poetry books, each for close to a month. They were published by ATLA Publishing, based in The United Kingdom. Since then he has published The Gilded Sun, (2018) and Mystic Wines, (2019) . His poems have also appeared prolifically in other International Magazines and anthologies. Zwerenz's poetry is often highly spiritual and mystical in nature. Zwerenz rarely writes prose, and is known for his classically styled, mostly romantic rhyme. His verse almost always adheres to strict, metrical stanzas. On February 14th of 2020 Green Frog Publications released his Complete Works, The Complete Anthology. It went on to become the best selling poetry anthology in The United States for the year 2020. Zwerenz currently resides in New York City and is 52 years of age. * Rachael Canter more…

All John L. Zwerenz poems | John L. Zwerenz Books

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