Day 13’s optional prompt, to write a riddle poem. ~ via The NaPoWriMo Website
So with “Day 13’s Prompt” I have chosen a three poems by Sylvia Plath, Jane Austen and Philip M. Haskin; then after that is my interpretation to the Challenge!
Happy reading and hope you all enjoy!
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Metaphors
I’m a riddle in nine syllables,
An elephant, a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
This loaf’s big with its yeasty rising.
Money’s new-minted in this fat purse.
I’m a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
I’ve eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there’s no getting off.
By Sylvia Plath
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CHARADES by Jane Austen (1775-1817)
“My first, tho’ water, cures no thirst, My next alone has soul, And when he lives upon my first,
He then is called my whole.”
#The answer is sea-man.
When my first is a task to a young girl of spirit, And my second confines her to finish the piece, How hard is her fate! but how great is her merit
If by taking my whole she effects her release!
#The answer is Hem-lock.
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THE ETERNAL RIDDLE
Israel, my people,
God’s greatest riddle,
Will thy solution
Ever be told ?
Fought – never conquered,
Bent – never broken,
Mortal – immortal,
Youthful, though old.
Egypt enslaved thee,
Babylon crushed thee,
Rome led thee captive,
Homeless thy head.
Where are those nations
Mighty and fearsome ?
Thou hast survived them,
They are long dead.
Nations keep coming,
Nations keep going,
Passing like shadows,
Wiped off the earth.
Thou an eternal
Witness remainest,
Watching their burial,
Watching their birth.
Pray, who revealed thee
Heaven’s great secret :
Death and destruction,
Thus to defy ?
Suffering torture,
Stake, inquisition –
Prithee, who taught thee
Never to die ?
Ay, and who gave thee
Faith, deep as ocean,
Strong as the rock-hills,
Fierce as the sun ?
Hated and hunted,
Ever thou wand’rest,
Bearing a message :
God is but one !
Pray, has thy saga
Likewise an ending,
As its beginning
Glorious of old ?
Israel, my people,
God’s greatest riddle,
Will thy solution
Ever be told ?
By Philip Max Raskin
Source: http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/the-eternal-riddle-by-p-m-raskin#ixzz3XIG9a7on
Family Friend Poems
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THE GREAT BARRIER REEF
Where deep in the ocean I am laid,
In a place adorned with life,
Look not upon the foreshore,
And have no thoughts of the crashing of the waves,
For I am submerged and surrounded by the sea,
Coming to life within the flow of the currents,
I am bright and colourful,
But in need of great care; by man!
© debradml (2015)