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Little Lamb

Little Lamb, little Lamb
fleece as black as smoke
Tinted existence of ash and tar
and decay in painted soul
Born from the spasm of gestation
in darkness and delirium
Reamed in a mirage existence
of damnation and purgatorial woe

Led to the slaughter
of the cradle
Crooked herders tame the weak
Survival of the Fittest
is taught in the gallows
and the Twilight Kingdom

Intuitive eyes of coal
burn.  Snarling death bell
chimes across the burden
Existence, and burden and slaughter

Little Lamb, little Lamb
hollow and black as coal

Then there was nothing more

Author notes

Racism, abortion, homicide, and a bunch of other stuff.
Symbolism:
Lamb-purity. A reference to Jesus. However making the lamb black, other than refering to a human as well (a Negro), it makes the lamb seem tainted.

This was focused more around allusions
I heavily allude to The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot to the point of a direct quotation. (Death's twilight kingdom)
I allude to The Divine Comedy with the purgatorial woes. It's also a more direct allusion to religion.

Themes: The primary theme of this poem is about society and the treatment of people. The lamb is slaughtered, just as humans are mistreated through abuse and homicide.
The lamb, also standing for Jesus, implies the trial of religion. This was an important theme in The Hollow Men, hence my allusion to that poem. In that poem, Eliot confronts his religious views as he struggles to cope with those changing views. He eventaully converts to, I believe Catholicism.
Catholicism plays a major role in this poem. This is the struggle of someone in a religious setting too. One can imply that the "human" might simply be "different" and coping with religious intolerance.
This is obviously a multi faceted poem.

A contest entry

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Comments


  • Cupcrazy
    March 23, 2007

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    A wonderful piece with strong imagry and metaphor. Nice rhythm and flow and the emotion is well conveyed. great write. Bunny


  • Heavens Child
    March 20, 2007

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    This is very good, with a creative way to get your message across. Well done. Thank you for entering my contest.