Eighteen Thirty One
This was a class exercise where I had to pick a time and place in the past and create a brief narrative verse.
The year, eighteen-thirty-one, was chosen to represent a time of great social change, when the rapidly expanding industrial centres in Britain were sucking people in from the country. This was, for many, an economic necessity as it had become more difficult to make a living from the land.
The sun no longer heralds the rising hour
The ever-darkness smog-grim covers all
Its acrid stench pervades my very soul
and chimney stacks replace the graceful trees
My wife’s fair cheeks have turned a pallid pale
the children cough and cry when once they laughed
Each day I ask what drove me to this place?
The fields no longer gave what once we had
a life abundant, full and free from care
The taxing rent that filled the landlord’s purse
did take our hope – did leave our table bare
A time has passed away – an era gone
What will befall us now? I cannot tell
What worth our faith in God? Where does he dwell?
Our rural life of heaven has turned to city hell.
The year, eighteen-thirty-one, was chosen to represent a time of great social change, when the rapidly expanding industrial centres in Britain were sucking people in from the country. This was, for many, an economic necessity as it had become more difficult to make a living from the land.
The sun no longer heralds the rising hour
The ever-darkness smog-grim covers all
Its acrid stench pervades my very soul
and chimney stacks replace the graceful trees
My wife’s fair cheeks have turned a pallid pale
the children cough and cry when once they laughed
Each day I ask what drove me to this place?
The fields no longer gave what once we had
a life abundant, full and free from care
The taxing rent that filled the landlord’s purse
did take our hope – did leave our table bare
A time has passed away – an era gone
What will befall us now? I cannot tell
What worth our faith in God? Where does he dwell?
Our rural life of heaven has turned to city hell.
posted by Matt at 2:23 AM
3 Comments:
Good morning, Matt. It was a pleasant surprise to wake up this AM and discover you had visited and left a comment on DesignerBlog. I hope you'll feel like stopping by again--you'll bemost welcome.
I imagine, when the industrial age begun - like now - there were some who thought it heralded great things, and others who despised it for the side where it took away/ changed jobs and created an era where health and safety were second-place to production.
I think you've caught the view of the latter very well!
The consolation is that all happens as it should whether we accept it or not...a thought provoking poem
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