Beyond the Whip
Rita Helberg 1962 (Port Elizabeth)
Beyond the Whip
Blissfully shy, and just a tiny seed was I
When sieved from the soil of my father.
Into manicured hands my devotion had fallen,
I’d grown to know no other than a heartless villain.
Captured for years by fearless obedience
My body I sentenced with measured deviance
To labor - once more - unto death and into the pit,
Beyond the sounds of the pounding whip.
It’s here, where souls abide instinctively naked,
Side by side, the secular and the sacred;
Where pride into meekness collapses -
Where the whip lies inept before the masses.
In this final hour vengeance is not what I seek,
Instead, for us both, oh lesser god, I now plead:
Holding the pierced Hands by which man was formed,
How dare I petition only the wounds of the wronged?
About this poem
The poem is about the measured death of a slave - to finish off his destiny. However brutal his master, he encounters and faces his Creator and Saviour in the end as he recognizes the pierced hands of Christ. He had no desire to nurture his own wounds any longer. Inspired by the journey of Christ to the Cross.
Written on October 15, 2023
Submitted by Riddle-me-ree on October 15, 2023
- 46 sec read
- 3 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | A XXBB CCXA DDXX XXXX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 777 |
Words | 154 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"Beyond the Whip" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/172820/beyond-the-whip>.
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