Dido and Aeneas

My entry for Bearsy’s New Competition

Aeneas fled Troy’s epic, tragic ending.
Obeyed the Gods and journeyed ever West.
Tired of miles of endless, aimless wending.
Found rest and peace and love on Dido’s breast.
A brief respite. The Gods renewed their call.
He left. She wept, her love still unabated.
Then, hopeless. spurn’d and sworn to end it all,
She built her pyre, expired and immolated.

Ladies, mark her case. Try not to follow.
Don’t give your love to men whose paths are driv’n.
Their passions spent, their honey’d words ring hollow.
They leave, nor care if they are unforgiv’n.
Take care. Perhaps, like her, your heart’s pyre lurks,
He’ll not stay true despite remember’d fireworks.

20 thoughts on “Dido and Aeneas”

  2. John, you’ve nicked the only decent poetic rhyme for ‘-works’! Ah, the benefits of ‘creatio præcox’! 🙂

  6. Arrers, yes. Good old Virgil (alias Vergil) was more of a tumtete kinda guy and he went on and on, I recall. A-level set bk. Virg. AEn.XII.

  7. Ara and Janus

    Haw, you pair. Could you just bear in mind that English is a foreign language subject up here and that I am at a severe disadvantage when you start doing all this clever stuff? My ‘A’ pass Higher English is long ago and far away and we did not get to do Literature and Language as separate subjects. It follows that our exposure to various poetic forms and metric options was a very swift anapaest through the better-known variants, with a strong emphasis on the Burns stanza and extensive training in how to defend the existence of the verse of William Topaz McGonagall (poet and tragedian).

    Whatever, this was my first ever attempt at a sonnet and I have just applied the tetum tetum tetum tetum tetum test, new learnt from Janus, and revised it. Probably still rubbish by native speaker’s standards but I still have 10 days to swot up on this sonnet thing and get it righter. As a Jock, I will. It’s what we do, being at the dour end of the spectrum.

  9. Fine that, Janus. My apologies for not acknowledging the ‘creatio praecox’ crack the first time. You are quite right. Maybe there are some advantages in being hasty after all. I will, of course, have to think about that for a considerable period of time. Smiley thing.

  10. Araminta [#5] – You are, of course, correct, but I was attempting, mirabile dictu, to be tactful for a change. 🙄

  11. Bearsy :

    Araminta [#5] – You are, of course, correct, but I was attempting, mirabile dictu, to be tactful for a change. :roll:

    I was only joshing, Bearsy. 🙂

    Mr Mackie is an incorrigible tease, but you are quite right to take me to task. 🙂

  13. Haw,Ara.

    This teetum/tumtee (Scots orthography) stuff is pure dead brilliant, by the way! Been playing with it all night. I almost wish that I’d been born English and had happened across it years ago.

    First two lines of a well-known theme tune?

    ‘Tumtee tumtee tumtee tum,
    Tumtee tumtee tum tum’.

    Probably obvious to you experienced teetum/tumteer’s, but I’m revelling in the thrill of a new-found joy.

    We do the nya nya, h’nya h’nya h’nya thing up here. Approximates more closely to the thrilling skirl of the pipes.

  14. Aw weel, John. Isn’t it fun, and better late than never!

    Er, can’t quite recognise the theme toon, but I’ve only been doing this a short time, you understand. I’m a recent convert.

    Scotland the Brave? 😉

  15. Ochone, ochone, Ara.

    First four lines

    ‘Tumtee tumtee tumtee tum,
    Tumtee tumtee tum tum.
    Tumtee tumtee tumtee tum
    Tumtee tumteetee tum.

    A National institution. May you be forgiven, as my dear, white-haired and sainted mother never said!

    ‘Incorrigible tease’? Never been so insulted.

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