The Lyrist’s Lament
This is the second poem we have hosted from Emily Small and is a tone shift following her unbridled enthusiasm and infectious joy in A Carnival of Classics.
Here, Emily is revisiting Orpheus and Eurydice, and the sense of desperate loss that readers still feel today.
The Lyrist’s Lament
Sing Kalliope
of the famed lyrist, born of your blood
who once charmed the wilds of Thrace
with fine song.
Speak
of his great deeds
at home and on rolling seas,
and his marriage to lovely Eurydice
the sweetest of souls short-lived
as to befit a tragedy.
Lend your eloquence
to his quest to save her.
With his devotion and valour
make a hero of he who in his sorrow
ventured to the House of Hades,
and let him lead her into boundless light.
Of these things speak, dear mother
for I cannot.
All my songs have turned to dirges
and the lyre strings sap
the very strength from me.
Dogs cower beneath shrill notes and
baby birds tumble from their nests
leaving mothers to mourn.
Tempestuous meter
tears summertime leaves from the trees
and chases clouds from the sky
to unveil a blazing sun that
at the sound of my keening
intensifies
baking earth and scorching crops
’til all around turns to ash
and my voice rasps to silence.
Orpheus, my son
for you, I’d craft a verse for the ages
and men would long sing of the poet
whose music lit the darkest of all shores
when he crossed the Styx
in wretched grief
and moved the heart of the dread king
to compassion.
They’d speak of grasses that
in breathless wind rippled
around reunited lovers,
and how Orpheus’ sweet melody
floating on the upper air
stayed the tigress from her prey
and drove back rot from fallen fruit.
Truth would tell
how nightingale chorus
stilled the streams
as oak and beech cast off
autumn’s first touch,
and the Thracian hills basked
in sunset gold that
shone all the brighter
for the lyrist’s joy.
But that he had not turned back.
About the Author
Emily Small graduated with a Classical Studies degree from the University of Edinburgh back in 2017. Nowadays, she co-owns an exterior cleaning business and when she's not washing windows or emptying gutters, you can find her writing, playing various sports and being otherwise outdoorsy.