The Dictator



The Dictator:
Ennui never ends.
Broken though it may be
By intervals of joy or grief,
It envelops all in its endless expanses,
mundane pastures, empty ranges
Fields upon fields of beige boredom.
Some hide from it in bottles others in the ponies
But no one ever escape it’s apathetic touch.

Royalty, fathers and mothers, teachers, doctors,
Lawyers and criminals, generals, ministers, all children of It.
The true equalizer. Etched into every parchment,
inscribed upon every face, sewn into every voice,
its melancholy song rings out over the world
and casts a drab pall upon all that inhabit it.
Every action committed and all thoughts conceived
Are only done with the permission of the Dictator.

Those still in their formative years live in peace
As no parent can ever break it to their child
Of the languor enforced by the dictator.
The lily-white soul of a child, the only light
In an otherwise black world, its essence
Yet to be tainted, plagued, infested, inhabited,
Corrupted, destroyed by its tedium.
They are the only voice of hope.

What good is the hope of a people through the voice of a child?
Still unsure in the world their first step is praised
But not the second or the third which are now
to be expected. Parents run from the dictator
leaving their child to face its brutality alone
the child fends for itself but soon succumbs to its
oppressive might and joins the legions
of unwitting followers. Another victim.

This elimination of childish innocence
Is lauded all around the world.
Instead of saving the innocent child
From the dictators groping touch
They instead celebrate and teach the
Once child to deal with their enforced position.
Beer and poker all around! Another drink!
Another vitiated soul.



About this poem

i wrote this poem whilst battling depression and anxiety in lockdown sso i hope you can see what i mean by "the dictator"

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Submitted by georgehodgson03 on December 15, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:36 min read
19

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXXXXXBXC XDXXEDXA XFAXGXBX FXXAXXXB GEFCXXXX
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,730
Words 322
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 9, 8, 8, 8, 8

George Hodgson

George Hodgson is an English student who decided to vent in the form of a poem more…

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1 Comment
  • S.Zaynab.Kamoonpury
    I like to dissect poems to interpret them, and to me this clever awesome epic is sublime and fab how it captures lockdown boredom, you mean the virus is the dictator right.? The mundane side of life and the loss of childlike innocence all summed up swell. Kudos!! 
    LikeReply2 years ago

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"The Dictator" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/115901/the-dictator>.

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