A Rosebud

Last but not least:

 

“A Rosebud”

-Robert Burns

 

This one felt like a beautiful simile to the gentle tug between youth and age. It starts out with him admiring a rosebud early in the morning when the sun is just rising and the red of the light catches the dew on the bud. Then it shifts inside its bush where a bird is waking up among the dew. She watches her babies who are also waking up and making noise to wake the rest of the neighborhood. After that, Burns describes the care and gentleness of the mother bird and the youth of the morning rosebud. He says the rosebud will go on to watch over the mother until the evening, symbolizing that youth will watch and learn from their elders until their elders’ ends.

~E

Address to the Toothache

And here's review #2:

 

“Address to the Toothache”

-Robert Burns

 

I couldn’t understand all of the Scottish slang in this one, but the use of context clues helped me understand the humor. A toothache isn’t the worst thing that could happen, but he purposefully exaggerates all of these different kinds of ailments, still placing a toothache above them. He makes himself out to be a pitiful victim drooling over himself and getting laughed at. Then to finish it off, he damns his toothache to the darkest pit of hell. That’s a little over the top if you ask me but definitely amusing.

 

~E

 

Remorse

Back from my trip to college! So here are these overdue reviews:

 

“Remorse”

-Robert Burns

Okay, let’s be honest. I chose this poem and the other two because they were a few that I could actually make sense of the words since there was limited Scottish dialect.

For this piece, I heard him talking about how there are many bad things that hurt us emotionally, the worst of which being that which we bring on ourselves. It’s bad when people usually just blame others for problems, but it’s even worse when we blame ourselves and become consumed by remorse. Then we realize how many other people we’ve blamed and gotten involved in our messes and the remorse merely multiplies itself. The most envious kind of person is he who can control his remorse and make amends to set himself to peace.

I feel this ending thought is the true embodiment of what to be envious of. People may think to be envious of someone who can feel no remorse, but that would only be jealousy of a monster. Burns circumvents this by describing who people really should be envious of.

 

~E

Saggitarius

You give me a suit. I give you no shirt. 
You give me a house. I give you no attendance. 
You give me work. I give you the bird. 
You give me a girl. I give you a broken heart. 

I want to be free. 
So let me be me.

(K)

~E

Scorpio

If I had my way, you'd never be able to see what's outside, not just inside, me. 
Some people don't need glasses to have perfect vision, though. 
I hate these people. 
I need them, though. 
They can dodge my push, reign in my pull. 
And I need that. 
I love them. 

(W)

~E

Libra

Glue, glue, glue. 
Stick, stick, stick. 
This world is quickly going to shit. 

Stick, stick, stick. 
Glue, glue, glue. 
I've chosen a side and so must you. 

I've kept us together the best that I could
But this fire is eating all of the wood. 

My hands are reaching to catch the fall
But this fire is going to consume us all. 

(C)

~E

Virgo

To feel is a tragedy as one might feel. 
A mind unclouded is a frightful thing. 
No regard, no empathy. 
No fear. 
People reject what they do not understand. What they fear. 
To connect logically, no fear would mean acceptance of all. 
And that would become a tragedy to fear. 

(A)

~E

Leo

Gunpowder sweet as the scent of a dozen roses. 
Just as lovely, too, red as it sparks and drips as petals fall. 
Change is the deity that casts everything a new form. 
What was will be gone, and what was gone will be once again. 
If a rose can create love from hate and gunpowder can bleed hate from that love, does that make me a god? 

(T)

~E

Cancer

If four is perfection, and two is could have been, what does that make three?
Gravity drags me back to two. 
Privilege reveals a staircase to four. 
But the staircase has its costs and falling is free. 
I know the price of four, and I know the reaps of two. 
Embrace the claws at the top or let them eviscerate me at the bottom? 

(R)

~E

Gemini

Another drink I say. 
Pay no heed to my promenade. 
It is jilted by a choice
Always meant to be made. 

My opioid of favor
Since my letters from folly
As I hurry to hide
Yet embrace melancholy. 

(S)

~E

Taurus

Drift, drift. 
Sugar sand white and palm tree green. Coconut brown and magical summer. 
Drift, drift. 
Blue. To the north, south, east, west. A sea and sky to fill the compass with lies. 
Drift, drift. 
Nothing for the ears but the wind moving on. 
Drift, drift. 
The island life is one I know best. 

(C)

~E

Aries

Puzzlement became a puzzle itself. 
Left used to be left, and right used to be right. 
But now left is right, and only right is left. 
Red used to be fire and warmth. 
But now it is ice and fear. 
I used to be red and right. 
But now I am merely frozen and wrong. 

(T)

~E

Pisces

Do you remember taking me in? 
Do you remember when I crumpled, paper in the wind, when what I needed was stature? 
Do you remember taking me in your arms without a second thought or question? 
Do you remember the nights you held me? When screams were the only liberation of my subconscious prison?  
Do you remember teaching me the way of a pen and press? 
Do you remember how the glint in your eyes could clear a five foot radius? 
Do you remember when someone broke that barrier? 
Do you remember letting me go? 

(K)

~E

Aquarius

Where are they? 
I've waited every day. 
I've lived through every trial of my hellbound journey. 
I've only ever been shown two sides. I provided the third. 
I've watched people get devoured, by monsters both duller and more prestigious than my own. 
I've saved the knife for the kitchen. 
So where are they? 
Where are my damn wings? 

(R)

~E

Capricorn

Black, red. 
"I've come to take care of business." 
Black, green. 
"I've better things to do than wait for you to make up your mind." 
White, green. 
"What is it you wish of me?" 
White, red. 
"Forgive what you see. This is my path." 

(E)

~E

Running

Am I ready?
Or worse yet, what if I am ready? 
I've never been good at running, but what if everyone falls behind this time?
I want to go, but I can't expect them all to follow. 
So can I hope they'll be ready when I come back?