Rite of Passage

Karl Constantine FOLKES 1935 (Portland)



At the wake
A lover weeps.
Tears on her cheeks.
No time to fake.

People in mourning…
He died while a-courting.
Much anger provoking.
Here, no one him scorning.

The church bells are tolling.
The service is now over.
The casket with cover,
At gravesite a-rolling.

‘Twas a time we were born,
Finding in life romance,
Giving someone a chance.
Alas— a time now to mourn.

About this poem

THE RITUAL OF MOURNING: The book of Ecclesiastes informs us that there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens. The lyric poet, Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65 BC - 8 BC), more famously known as Horace, is credited with coining the expression, “carpe diem “ (“seize the day”), recorded in Odes Book 1. The idiom, “”Eat, drink and be merry,” is associated with the Greek philosopher, Epicurus (341 BC - 270 BC). What all these cited instances have in common, is a commentary on the vagaries of life, which is ever so fleeting. This poem, “Rite of Passage,” is written as a quatrain, with a ABBA rhyme scheme. 

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Written on November 22, 2021

Submitted by karlcfolkes on November 22, 2021

Modified by karlcfolkes on September 19, 2022

24 sec read
160

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXXA BBBA BCCB DEED
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 374
Words 82
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4

Karl Constantine FOLKES

Retired educator of Jamaican ancestry with a lifelong interest in composing poetry dealing particularly with the metaphysics of self-reflection; completed a dissertation in Children’s Literature in 1991 at New York University entitled: An Analysis of Wilhelm Grimm’s “Dear Mili” Employing Von Franzian Methodological Processes of Analytical Psychology. The subject of the dissertation concerned the process of Individuation. more…

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