Ode To Apollo (Refrain Stanza Sequence) Poem by Gert Strydom

Ode To Apollo (Refrain Stanza Sequence)



(After John Keats)

I
As the god of the golden fire, lire and bow
Apollo did of the greatest poets and songs know,
knew about each one's struggle and their glory
and all about their lives and their story,
where in Olympus their words did glow,
while with splendour did gleam his golden hair,
their voices were one after the other in the air,
as if godly their poems did on them eternity bestow,
Apollo did of the greatest poets and songs know:

II
Homer trumpeted of Greek royalty from afar
before with words he twanged the bronze harp in war,
Maro's lyre in respite toned the sizzling blazing fire
of a ancient emotional burning burial pyre,
blind Milton did Eden, Heaven and Hell bar
while ravishing he turned it all to peace
and by his hand Shakespeare did the passions release,
while his sonnets and plays remain forevermore
before with words he twanged the bronze harp in war.

III
While in his godly listening prophetic state
Apollo heard of bravery the songs of fate:
martially Spencer on chastity had his silver trumpet resound,
like thunder Keats's odes had Psyche fast asleep found,
waked and recalled the gods while their power did abate,
as a radical nonconformist Shelley did strung his own tune,
was to the attacks of contemporaries immune,
of love and joy, madness, bliss, sorrow and hate
Apollo heard of bravery the songs of fate:


IV

Ardently Tasso's words in his crusade were lovely and fair
and where poets do about deliverance, love and pity care,
Wyatt, Browning and Browning, Rossetti and Rossetti, Byron,
endlessly from the past, today and the future the poets do go on
while the words, the lines, the verses are everywhere,
where still Apollo does love, truth bravery and prophecy divine
in his palace the power of song and verse do combine,
while heroically people sing songs in life's turbulent warfare,
where poets do about deliverance, love and pity care.

[References:"Ode to Apollo" and "Hymn to Apollo" by John Keats.]

© Gert Strydom

Thursday, March 22, 2018
Topic(s) of this poem: mythology
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Gert Strydom

Gert Strydom

Johannesburg, South Africa
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