The tiger, with his stripes, is often hid
Amidst the reeds that bloom in warmer climes
And rise like caryatids placed amid
Courts such as clothed the earth in simpler times.
Seen through the cat’s eye’s regal, gilded gleam,
The forest, beast and bird, on bended knee,
Accedes to that bright lord of bough and stream,
Indulging feline immortality.
But in the dark lucanas of his skin,
A Delphic prophecy is kept concealed,
Each stripe a Python, coiled deep within
The Apollonian soul the stripes hold sealed.
Alone, upon the Saturnalian shore,
The tiger fights his future with a roar.
2 comments:
Anguished over "bird and beast" or "beast and bird." Every time I read this, I say "bird and beast" and have to correct myself when I see the words on the page. Forest/bird/beast is perhaps what I really wanted to say. But it feels like cheating to go back and fix this.
I see what you mean, but why is it cheating to alter it? I make such notes with mine, putting the original and alternate in notes below the sonnet, that I may see what I first had and changed. Could you not edit this posting thus?
For example:
L6 orig: "The forest, beast and bird,..."
alt: "The forest, bird and beast,..."
Every reader then may see what you tweaked and consider it as well.
While I like the internal rhyming of L1 into L2 with "hid/Amidst" yet when "amid" reappears closing L3, it seems a bit too much. The internal rhyming delightfully runs through the first quatrain with L1 "is/hid", L2 "Amidst/in", L3 "caryatids/amid," L4 "in/simpler." Then L4-8 with the "eye/-i" sound; internal rhyming plays, dancing throughout this piece with glee, hopefully not overdone.
The imagery brings in mythology for a healthy flavour of almost mystic quality with the latter half's references to "Delphic prophecy, Apollonian, Saturnalian."
A fascinating tribute to tigers, their markings and significance, power and authority.
Thought-provoking.
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