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. *"Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter" John Keats, Ode On A Grecian Urn.* . I'm never sure how I should take his silence, It's not by choice, that much I know. For he is a piper painted on porcelain, Left to inspire a dreamer in an Ode. His immortal canopy never sheds a leaf, But offers no shade - frozen in time - And as it was written, he never came to life and played His fair maiden her melodious rhyme. It sits on his lips as they chip and crack; A dry mouth, a pipe for melodies made. Sadly for the piper, I don't share Keats' hope As he said of his maiden, 'She cannot fade'. This brave boy's riff will remain dormant, Haunting and quiet - laid on porcelain, As I can't help this overwhelming jealousy Of the notes he'll never play trapped within. How they reel through my mind but leave nothing - Not a sound or a ripple of waves, Whereas mine float a while and decay with little grace, The dotted-quavers left fading on staves. I'm never sure how I should take his silence, It's not by choice, that much I know. Yet I envy more than words his lifetime in a moment, In a world in which I wait and watch things grow.
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May 10, 2015
May 10, 2015 at 1:18 PM UTC
The Immortal Silence of a Porcelain Piper
. *"Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter" John Keats, Ode On A Grecian Urn.* . I'm never sure how I should take his silence, It's not by choice, that much I know. For he is a piper painted on porcelain, Left to inspire a dreamer in an Ode. His immortal canopy never sheds a leaf, But offers no shade - frozen in time - And as it was written, he never came to life and played His fair maiden her melodious rhyme. It sits on his lips as they chip and crack; A dry mouth, a pipe for melodies made. Sadly for the piper, I don't share Keats' hope As he said of his maiden, 'She cannot fade'. This brave boy's riff will remain dormant, Haunting and quiet - laid on porcelain, As I can't help this overwhelming jealousy Of the notes he'll never play trapped within. How they reel through my mind but leave nothing - Not a sound or a ripple of waves, Whereas mine float a while and decay with little grace, The dotted-quavers left fading on staves. I'm never sure how I should take his silence, It's not by choice, that much I know. Yet I envy more than words his lifetime in a moment, In a world in which I wait and watch things grow.
. If something grows, it must grow old. This is a tribute to a poem that has always stuck with me: Ode on a Grecian urn. .
leigh321f
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May 10, 2015
May 10, 2015 at 1:18 PM UTC
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