Poetry Pairings: The Draining Darkness of Despair
In the video When Your Child’s Bogeyman is Real the narrator uses a common theme of light versus dark. She talks about how her son has a light inside of him, yet after parkland this light fades. Light is often a symbol for hope, and as her son loses the light, he loses hope. This is where I got my thematic idea for despair. This theme of light and dark was the inspiration for my poem and I tried to incorporate it in my metaphors. I chose metaphors that I could clearly picture in my head and that illustrate a loss of light; a fire burning out, light fading as you drown. I also used an idiom to represent what powers our hope; “the fire of a steam engine.”
The image I chose is my idea of despair. I believe that despair is this darkness that clouds our vision. Blocking out the light and impeaching our beliefs.
The Thief of Light
What is Despair?
Despair drains the light from my soul,
and settles down
to pry away my hope,
What is Despair?
Despair controls my decisions,
shatters my dreams,
empowers my fears.
What is Despair?
It is the eye of an antelope as a leopard locks its jaw.
It is drowning,
watching the light at the surface fade away.
It is the sizzle of water,
thrown on the fire of a steam engine.