Poetic Challenge using Longfellow's "Excelsior" Options

[Cleo_Serapis]

Hi all,

Based on the success of the Robert Frost challenges here in Karnak, I'll throw a new (old) poet into the mix. This one is a bit longer with nine quatrains.

Taking Longfellow's Excelsior poem below, create your own using the same end words of each line. ONE REQUIREMENT - REPLACE the word "Excelsior" with something else of your choosing and it should also be your title..

Good luck!
~Cleo

Excelsior


The shades of night were falling fast,
As through an Alpine village passed
A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!

His brow was sad; his eye beneath,
Flashed like a falchion from its sheath,
And like a silver clarion rung
The accents of that unknown tongue,
Excelsior!

In happy homes he saw the light
Of household fires gleam warm and bright;
Above, the spectral glaciers shone,
And from his lips escaped a groan,
Excelsior!

"Try not the Pass!" the old man said:
"Dark lowers the tempest overhead,
The roaring torrent is deep and wide!
And loud that clarion voice replied,
Excelsior!

"Oh stay," the maiden said, "and rest
Thy weary head upon this breast!"
A tear stood in his bright blue eye,
But still he answered, with a sigh,
Excelsior!

"Beware the pine-tree's withered branch!
Beware the awful avalanche!"
This was the peasant's last Good-night,
A voice replied, far up the height,
Excelsior!

At break of day, as heavenward
The pious monks of Saint Bernard
Uttered the oft-repeated prayer,
A voice cried through the startled air,
Excelsior!

A traveller, by the faithful hound,
Half-buried in the snow was found,
Still grasping in his hand of ice
That banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!

There in the twilight cold and gray,
Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay,
And from the sky, serene and far,
A voice fell, like a falling star,
Excelsior!


Copyright © Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

[Larry]

Is there anybody out there? Are nine quatrains too much to ask? Perhaps the third time will be the charm.


Emeralds

Last vestiges of Winter faded fast
as days grew longer. Now that solstice passed
into a yesterday of snow and ice,
the warmth returns. A gift, Nature’s device.
Emeralds

appear upon each tree and down beneath
enveloping the earth in jeweled sheath.
Wisteria, entwined on trellis rung,
is burgeoning with mauve and green tipped tongue.
Emeralds

add color to stark woodlands, veil the light
which had reflected from the ice; too bright.
Subdued, the moonlit glow of snow, once shone
to cause the mighty oak’s strong arms to groan.
Emeralds.

Each season’s time is meted out, it’s said,
by those celestial bodies overhead
which rule their passage. None too long or wide
to staunch that change and to this I replied,
“Emeralds

make Spring the fairest; better than the rest!”
Sweet daffodils and russet Robin’s breast
are food for heart and soul as well as eye.
To view life’s fresh renewal makes me sigh,
Emeralds.

I watch the flowering of bush and branch
amidst jade buds. A verdant avalanche
begins as Winter falls in that good night.
Spring’s touch is felt; assails the mountains’ height.
Emeralds

surround each meadow’s blooms. From heavenward,
come minions of the patron, Saint Bernard.
to touch each flower, softly, like a prayer,
then disappear into the warming air.
Emeralds

find freshly scented trails, like faithful hound,
to decorate. Where death had ruled, they found
small sips of life. Still ponds, which once were ice
are quickly clad in moss. Nature’s device…
Emeralds.

From snowy white beneath a sky of gray
to fields of beryl bounty where I lay
my head. A transformation from afar
returns to change my world. Gem’s precious star,
Emeralds


Larry

TY Henry!