The Sight Of Fallen Cypress Poem by Nosheen Irfan
The Sight Of Fallen Cypress
A lone cypress
In my grandfather's lawn
Standing tall and erect
Since I could sense life about me
I saw it there
Still in the brightness
Restless in the wind
But ever standing
Upright and proud
As the sole child
Bequeathed with honors
And the crown
The other trees were puny
Beside its mighty presence
For all the richness in foliage
They couldn't match its grace
Day after day passed
Unmarred by Time
Its beauty un-blighted
Eclipsing the trees by its side
Their branches sprawled in ungainly curves
Bent and broken at places
Where I hung and swung wildly
Till my legs felt the air
Or I heard the squeak
Of a frail twig
And through it all
The sunshine and the storms
The cypress stood quiet
Like a giant among the pygmies
Withdrawn from the crowd
Shut up in a death-like silence
Un-shattered by the noise
A deep shade of green
Against the pale blue sky
A sight I loved
And thought about in bed
Along with the goblins, fairies
And the stately tower
The cypress stood deep in my mind
Forever young and fighting the odds
A thing with no beginning and end
I saw with bewildering eyes
The spectacle unimagined
Across the courtyard lay the cypress
Fallen from its height
I stood in disbelief
Expecting it to rise any moment
Greeting the sun
Like it always did
Its tapering frame rising ever so high
Slender yet strong
When the harsh gusts shook it madly
There it stood, rooted fast
And although the wind had howled all night
Beating against the shuttered windows
With a fury unheard of
Still a nightmare it seemed
From which I would awaken soon
For a fallen cypress
I could not imagine
Unborn yet
In a child's mind.
Nosheen Irfan © 2016
A fantastic poem and perhaps your longest and best. I don't know which lines of it I should highlight. What a style and flow. I am at a loss for words. A (10) before I get down to reading it again, again, ...... again!
Thank u so so much sir Madathil for your generous comments. Made my day.
No doubt anyone who reads this poem will sense its tragic fall well before you narrate that night of the fierce winds that toppled it. It is the nature of tragedy to follow a pattern of doom that we sense within: we don't read a tragedy to see how the story is going to end; we read it to experience inevitable loss, to cope with loss, to move beyond loss. I find your fourth stanza to be the heart of the piece: it is a still point in which you eloquently reveal the dimensions of our imminent loss. This is not the tragedy of power in which a great person falls because of hubris, thus being an agent of their fall. No, this is the fall of an innocent person pulled into a tragic fate because of other people's fault. It is the tragedy of Cordelia and Ophelia, of Eurydice and Beatrice in Shelley's THE CENCI. Blameless people who are victims because of the consequences of others' action or of events out of human control. That's why the fourth stanza is so important: We must release the pain and frustration we feel by extolling the good which has been lost forever. I'm putting your poem in the context of a classical tragedy. It can certainly appreciated without such an argument. But your poem expresses this view of tragedy so thoroughly I just had to elaborate it. You have given us a lasting catharsis. Brava, Nosheen, for taking the High Road of Tragedy!
My great pleasure reading this magnificent poem time and again. Absolutely immaculate!
" A deep shade of green /Against the pale blue sky " wow! Fantastic image. Captivating poem. Reading for the nth time. Enjoyed reading.
This is a great poem---It is in my Poem list for sure and 5 stars.
A sight I loved/And thought about in bed/Along with the goblins, fairies/And the stately tower....lofty imagination! A beautiful poem so meticulously expressed...liked the third stanza most........10
What an engrossing tale! I am moved by your narration. Nothing less than 10 for this outstanding poem.
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4/28/2024 7:38:47 AM # 1.0.0.1119
Oh, Nosheen, you have a beautiful mind. The imagery and emotion you lavished on this poem are the epitome of human being. This is going straight to my favorites and unfortunately receiving only the 10 that is allowed.
Thank you so so much Kelly for such heart-warming comments. Much honored and humbled.