poem | Words into Stories

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written by Nathaniel Gray
“The Charge of the Light Brigade”
By Alfred Lord Tennyson

I think the meaning and motive for this poem is self-explanatory. The six hundred horsemen were sent on a suicidal charge toward a valley, where they knew they stood no chance, yet they did it anyway. The actual order was a misunderstanding, and the horsemen, not knowing this, went forward anyway, perhaps thinking that they would be a sacrificial distraction for a different group of soldiers. Tennyson wanted to capture their heroic sacrifice and record it forever in this poem.

I personally love the poem for the courage it displays. It’s not a “glorification of war” poem, but rather a glorying in the willingness of people to sacrifice themselves for what they deem to be a noble and good cause. And their sacrifice should never be forgotten.

I

Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

   Rode the six hundred.

“Forward, the Light Brigade!

Charge for the guns!” he said.

Into the valley of Death

   Rode the six hundred.

II

“Forward, the Light Brigade!”

Was there a man dismayed?

Not though the soldier knew

   Someone had blundered.

   Theirs not to make reply,

   Theirs not to reason why,

   Theirs but to do and die.

   Into the valley of Death

   Rode the six hundred.

III

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon in front of them

   Volleyed and thundered;

Stormed at with shot and shell,

Boldly they rode and well,

Into the jaws of Death,

Into the mouth of hell

   Rode the six hundred.

IV

Flashed all their sabres bare,

Flashed as they turned in air

Sabring the gunners there,

Charging an army, while

   All the world wondered.

Plunged in the battery-smoke

Right through the line they broke;

Cossack and Russian

Reeled from the sabre stroke

   Shattered and sundered.

Then they rode back, but not

   Not the six hundred.

V

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon behind them

   Volleyed and thundered;

Stormed at with shot and shell,

While horse and hero fell.

They that had fought so well

Came through the jaws of Death,

Back from the mouth of hell,

All that was left of them,

   Left of six hundred.

VI

When can their glory fade?

O the wild charge they made!

   All the world wondered.

Honour the charge they made!

Honour the Light Brigade,

   Noble six hundred!

(Photo: Mohamed Nohassi)
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Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 8 Oct 2018
written by Nathaniel Gray
“Alone”
By Edgar Allan Poe

Probably one of my favorites by him.

This poem captures the great burden of the artist, the blessing and curse that comes with creating art. We wield great power, but we love what others cannot see or understand (until we’ve created it). In this sense, the artist is alone. The “demon” is Poe’s calling to be an artist.

From childhood’s hour I have not been

As others were—I have not seen

As others saw—I could not bring

My passions from a common spring—

From the same source I have not taken

My sorrow—I could not awaken

My heart to joy at the same tone—

And all I lov’d—I lov’d alone—

Then—in my childhood—in the dawn

Of a most stormy life—was drawn

From ev’ry depth of good and ill

The mystery which binds me still—

From the torrent, or the fountain—

From the red cliff of the mountain—

From the sun that ’round me roll’d

In its autumn tint of gold—

From the lightning in the sky

As it pass’d me flying by—

From the thunder, and the storm—

And the cloud that took the form

(When the rest of Heaven was blue)

Of a demon in my view—

(Photo: Jordan Steranka)
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Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 28 Aug 2018
written by Nathaniel Gray
Smith Love Poem
A close friend of mine is getting married in a couple of weeks. A long time ago, they asked me to write a poem for their wedding. I thought I’d share it here.

–

They walk in beauty
With stars up above,
Hearts glazed in light
And overflowing with love.

She carries her life
A budding rose of white
Tinted blue from the gaze
Of her gentle-eyed knight.

What is stronger than death,
More fragile than a bud
Than the hearts of two children
Bound together by God’s love?

(Photo: Pablo Heimplatz)
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Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 23 Jul 2018
written by Nathaniel Gray
Fairies
You think that we are small and delicate
With dust in our wings and petals as our walls,

But we have more power than your mind could bear,
More wealth than a Pharaoh or all the banks of Ophir.

You think we live to dance and leave dew on the grass,
But we do more than make children fly.

We have raised up kings and knights,
Determining the fate of whom we love and hate.

We can change our shape to be what we will,
Fragile and gentle in the eyes of a child

But as fair as the moon and as clear as the sun,
Turning tides, giving light, creating life

In a never ending chase around an unsearchable earthen heart.
We have the beauty of roses as delicate as the petals

Where you imagine we spend our days pruning our wings,
But our thorns are as terrible as an army with banners.

(Photo: Lawrence Green)
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Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 9 Apr 2018
written by Nathaniel Gray
Atlas Shrugged
gazing at ground between his feet

he shifted

the world nearly tipped

the nations battled for the third time

lust bloodshed and cruelty

for the sake of their vanities

their governments religions and economies

he grew weary

their speeches of hope

made him groan

their battle cries

punctured his skin

their weapons of free radicals

burned his hands

and he could bear it no longer.

when the world grew dark

the wars stopped

but fear grew stronger

people came together

finally

when the death stench was strong

looking everywhere for the cause

except their own hands

but the world had ended

because the one who bore them

could bear them no more.

(Photo: Mads Schmidt Rasmussen)
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Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 28 Mar 2018
written by Nathaniel Gray
We Fight
We, rebels, we

In the smoke in the fog

In the streets in the dark

Run for cover, run for love.

Heresy, they cry, heresy

In the world in our hearts

In the sky on the throne

Breaking all bonds of trust.

We, men and women,

Haters of gray and lies and half-hearts,

Lovers of truth and life and battle scars,

Couriers of black red yellow and white

Against shadows of truths

We fight we fight.
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Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 8 Mar 2018
written by Nathaniel Gray
Alegria
O alegría, preciosa alegría. There was a window. Rosado. Outside were brown and red bricks. The lady with dark hair sang.

Oh mi oh mi, mi vida es, mi vida es. We ate ice cream. Vanilla con fresas. Red and pink and white, and purple skies. Azul! Azul! The children shouted. No, morado! I would yell.

Tengo tiempo, todo el tiempo en el mundo. The world was young then. I had dark brown eyes. But his eyes were blue and green like sea water crashing on the shore. The ocean sings. But not like our brown lady.

Hermosa, they whispered. Hermosa, tan hermosa. I mixed the flour and sugar, but it always burnt. The clothes danced in the wind. Where? Outside. ¿Dónde? He shook his head. His laugh sounded like Christmas.

Quiero amor, quiero amor. We stopped to listen. The trees bent, and the flowers hushed. The clothes became still. We ran to the window. There. There! His eyes swam in the sky and captured the stars, while his laugh danced.

Quiero un hombre, quiero un hombre. She twirled until the orange and pink blended into a mango. The statues made me sad, but we watched. God listened. The window turned white and foggy under my nose and mouth. I held my breath. He held his. Mi madre, I whispered. Someday, he whispered back.
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Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 28 Dec 2017
written by Nathaniel Gray
Paradox
‘Tis common, thou know’st; Fear dwells among us.
Woe be to him who thinks he can escape.
It dwell’st inside thy limbs, turns heart to dust,
And circles round thy neck as a black cape

Of darkness and trembling and shadows of the abyss
Where light, nevermore, can shroud you in its bliss.
But here, only here, can you see the spirit divine
And grasp its hand to glimpse the place where twines

Light and dark in twilight. Among colors of purple blue pink and red
There catches the lovely reflecting light of where there exists no dread.
In this night-day when angel painters stretch their arms to paint the sky,
The darkness of your shadow seems to pale until out of sight.

In the scheme of things in this wild, untamed earth, there is little heed for its citizens and cities and archetypical arts.
It does not mind your fears or woes or capes made of shadows or incomes or well-dones or jobs or clothes.
It does not care for your worries and hurries and lusty fights or lonely nights or battles done or conquests won or good days or what’s to come.

It simply
Is.

Nothing more.

Nothing less.

Nothing else.

Remember that.
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Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 4 Dec 2017
written by Nathaniel Gray
Four White Walls (Poem to Describe Finals week)
Four walls and a picture
Are all that I see.
A window with sunlight
Never shining on me.

These twists and turns
Have caged me tight.
Curtains of stone
Made of a dead, placid white.

I can still see the toy-sized people,
Though they’re blind to my dark window panes.
I can watch them go about their happy, little lives,
While they can’t see me from inside this cage.

Noiseless, boisterous, sad, sad walls
Always echoing silence.
Sometimes I’m scared to hear my own voice
Call out to me from the white abyss.

That picture has two eyes
That grow paler everyday.
It watches me with a painted smile
As I map out my escape.

Four walls and a picture
Are all that I see,
And I wonder if that trapped person in the picture
Is actually a reflection of me.
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Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 30 Nov 2017
written by Nathaniel Gray
The Quest for Beauty
The fancy utters of night in dreams
That lay me down in sleep so sweet
Do whisper, whisper of the soul’s delight
And the pinnacle of the mortal’s mind.

I traveled down a chimera path
With eyes gazing at stars who laughed
At my grasp too short, too short to stretch
The length of grasping at their breath.

I passed the shadowed trees of midnight hue
Drenched with angel tears for a covering of dew
Where each glisten was brighter, far brighter than the moon
And bark was marked with unearthly runes.

Was it here? Was I here?
Had my prayers at last been heard?
Was I where the light, the pale light,
And enticing night intertwined?

Would I find where the sea finally embraced the sky?
Or where the well would expose the secrets in Ligeia’s eyes?
Down this path, this chimera trail,
Was there a tapestry of Helen’s tale?

My heartbeat measured in mountains,
And my eyes became as fountains.
A glimpse of paradise, Eden’s grove?
A sea of glass and a sapphire throne?

Was I here at last where peace would overflow
The discontent brim of my weary soul,
And all of my desire, my one desire would achieve
And I, wandering visionary, would be at ease?

I passed the trees, the stars, the chiaroscuro scene,
The flowers, the dew from beings unseen.
My legs carried me faster and faster, like mad,
And doubt was drowned by hope joy-clad.

Had I found beauty?
Had I found life?
The stars, the laughing lights,
Harmonized in melodies of pure delight.

Had a mortal finally come upon the hidden abode?
Of what only offered glimpses in notes or in codes?
In words and sounds and blended colors on a canvas?
In the whispers of God in rivers, oceans, and us?

I rounded the corner, my hand on my heart
As light and colors and music and perfect art
Blinded my vision for an instant, a twinkling instant,
And my eyes adjusted to the floating dust and dreams of a mere existent.
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Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 26 Sep 2017

Page 1 of 4

Words into Stories

Recent Posts

Categories

Tag: poem

written by Nathaniel Gray

“The Charge of the Light Brigade”

Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 8 Oct 2018

written by Nathaniel Gray

“Alone”

Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 28 Aug 2018

written by Nathaniel Gray

Smith Love Poem

Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 23 Jul 2018

written by Nathaniel Gray

Fairies

Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 9 Apr 2018

written by Nathaniel Gray

Atlas Shrugged

Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 28 Mar 2018

written by Nathaniel Gray

We Fight

Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 8 Mar 2018

written by Nathaniel Gray

Alegria

Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 28 Dec 2017

written by Nathaniel Gray

Paradox

Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 4 Dec 2017

written by Nathaniel Gray

Four White Walls (Poem to Describe Finals week)

Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 30 Nov 2017

written by Nathaniel Gray

The Quest for Beauty

Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 26 Sep 2017

Recent Posts

Categories

Tag: poem

written by Nathaniel Gray

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Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 8 Oct 2018

written by Nathaniel Gray

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Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 28 Aug 2018

written by Nathaniel Gray

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Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 23 Jul 2018

written by Nathaniel Gray

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Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 9 Apr 2018

written by Nathaniel Gray

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Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 28 Mar 2018

written by Nathaniel Gray

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Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 8 Mar 2018

written by Nathaniel Gray

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Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 28 Dec 2017

written by Nathaniel Gray

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Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 4 Dec 2017

written by Nathaniel Gray

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Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 30 Nov 2017

written by Nathaniel Gray

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Written by Nathaniel Gray, on 26 Sep 2017