palinode to melancholy

Willow Erin Tanner 1982 (Redlands, CA)

Ode


never trust a bee,
no matter what’s the song they sing,
or jig they dance, or nectar bring,
not because they bite or sting,
not because their queen is cruel,
but because her lies are true,
slipping from her bee-mouth’s goo,
bursting on her palate, juice-ripe you~~
and the husk she’ll hang aloft,
cushioned ’mongst the trophies soft,
oh so soft, that melancholy’s due…
so she bids thee ’dieu, adieu,
mandibles bespecked, bestained, bedewed,
as she pins you to the tray,
limbs out-strewn, heart out-splayed,
beautifully, like me.

About this poem

This is a poem about betrayal, in response to John Keats's "Ode to Melancholy."

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Written on September 08, 2023

Submitted by willowerrant on September 13, 2023

30 sec read
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Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBBCDDDEEDDEFEA
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 543
Words 101
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16

Willow Erin Tanner

I've been writing poetry since my senior year in high school. I'm a transgender woman, and I have a PhD in Renaissance literature, but my favorite poet is Keats, and I take a lot of inspiration from the Romantics and Modernists. Now I teach writing to international students, but I still write my pain in blood. more…

All Willow Erin Tanner poems | Willow Erin Tanner Books

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    "palinode to melancholy" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 31 Oct. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/170739/palinode-to-melancholy>.

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