Great Time of London

[Delta40]

I

Hobbes' Leviathan
Determines for us all
Life in the state of nature is
Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.

Cromwell agrees;
His spiked head rots
Atop Westminster Hall.
The future death mask
Of simple, unwitting souls.

II

Death docks in the
Foggy Thames.
Church bells toll
To a gruesome arrival.

Blood engorged fleas
Trade the backs of rats
For Mankind as host
To yersinia pestis.

Apothecaries cry alarms
Penny for a healing charm!
Sprays of rosemary
Hide their sickly cheeks.

Appearances of patchy black skin.
A child’s compulsive vomiting.
Misguidance slays cats and dogs
On corpse infested streets

Countless unknown poor
Rot at the deserted palace door
As Charles II seeks sanctuary
Under an Oxford Weeping Tree.

Labour mills grind to a halt
Tools idle, without trade.
Handfuls of posies to noses
But they all just fall down


III

In answer to the cry,
Bring out your dead,
The fearful living few
Pile corpses on a barrow.

God’s plague pit at Aldgate
Digests another cartful
Of Bleak Black Death.
As scavenging birds circle.

While Newton solves the puzzle
To the theory of gravitation
Somewhere in Pudding Lane
A smouldering oven flames…

[PrinceMyshkin]

In III v2 l3 I'd suggest you omit "it" for a better flow from the preceding line.

What a sombre poem! And but for the final lines of III, this appears to be a neutral, unmoved, objective reportage; but the last verse of III evoked a shudder of moral horror in me.

I was reminded here and there of Blake's "London," although that had an accusing tone.

Well done.

[Delta40]

Damn! I've left a stanza out....

[PrinceMyshkin]

Damn! I've left a stanza out....

PLEASE use the edit feature & let us know when you've added it in. I took it from your reference to "posies" that you are familiar with the origin and meaning of the children's rhyme: Ring around the rosy, which I believe alludes to the origin of the custom of God-blessing someone when they sneeze.

[Delta40]

PLEASE use the edit feature & let us know when you've added it in. I took it from your reference to "posies" that you are familiar with the origin and meaning of the children's rhyme: Ring around the rosy, which I believe alludes to the origin of the custom of God-blessing someone when they sneeze.

I am. I also referred to the rhyme in all falling down. another rhyme which I toyed with is

Pease porridge hot
Pease porridge cold
Pease porridge in the pot
Nine days old

I imagined a family whose house was sealed up, decomposing alongside nine day old Pease porridge.....never got there unfortunately.

[PrinceMyshkin]

I'm bumping this in the hope that it will get more of the responses it deserves.

[Delta40]

Thank you Prince.

[Jerrybaldy]

Epic is the first word that springs to mind followed by historic. On a world wide scale even esoteric.
Ring of roses is hottly disputed as being about the plague as it seems to predate it and blessing people when they sneeze is equally thought to relate to the soul leaving the body at that point and the blessing stopping the devil entering during that time. But both of those points are half knowledge from half remembered readings.
Your poem is well written and in its writing and its execution admirable. It relies on a lot of knowledge on the part of the reader, but that is no bad thing.
vegimites
JerryB

[Hawkman]

I see what you mean about sitting in the past this weekend. I think the poem is truly evocative of the plague year. the poem is replete with juicy images but one of my favourites is:

"God’s plague pit at Aldgate
Digests another cartful
Of Bleak Black Death.
As scavenging birds circle."

Just one thing though, your opening line should I think, refer to Hobbsism, or Hobbesism, the spelling of Thomas Hobbes surname omits the e in the earlier records. Perhaps "Hobbes' Leviathan" might have been the simplest and most elegant opening but this is a tiny quibble in an impressive offering.

Best, H

[Delta40]

Thanks Hawk. I originally wrote: Hobbes Leviathan but felt 'Hobbism' had a Tolkein feel to it....


Epic is the first word that springs to mind followed by historic. On a world wide scale even esoteric.
Ring of roses is hottly disputed as being about the plague as it seems to predate it and blessing people when they sneeze is equally thought to relate to the soul leaving the body at that point and the blessing stopping the devil entering during that time. But both of those points are half knowledge from half remembered readings.
Your poem is well written and in its writing and its execution admirable. It relies on a lot of knowledge on the part of the reader, but that is no bad thing.
vegimites
JerryB

I agree. However, The black plague was doing the rounds for some 300 years. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes can neither confirm or unconfirm the origins of the rhyme, which has evolved according to its demographics. Sneezing was also a firm indicator that someone had contracted the plague. I'm happy to imply it is so. I considered Pease Porridge Hot as an eerie line also.

[zoolane]

I love it because subtle to place and nursery rhyme. It love sad poem but probably true. One best and as well Old or Modern English ones