Thursday, 26 September 2024

Epitaph

 

Epitaph

 

I think they will remember this as the age of lamentations,

The age of broken minds and broken souls,

The age of hurt creatures sobbing out their sorrow to the rhythm of the blues –

The music of lost Africa’s desolation become the music of the town.

 

The age of failure of splendid things,

The age of deformity of splendid things.

The age of young men and bitter children,

The age of treachery and of great new faith,

The age of madness and machines,

Of broken bodies and fear twisted hearts,

 

The age of frenzied fumbling and possessive lusts –

And yet, deep down, an age unsatisfied by dirt and guns,

An age which though choked by the selfishness of the few who owned their bodies and souls,

Still struggled blindly to the end,

And in their time reached out magnificently

Even for the very stars themselves.

H.D. Carberry (1921-1989)

 

H.D. Carberry was born in Montreal, Canada, in 1921, the son of the former Jamaican Chief Justice, Sir John Carberry and Lady Georgina Carberry. He was taken to Jamaica as a small child and lived there for the rest of his life.

 

I felt this poem was particularly apt at a time of great unrest and cruelty across the world, when lives are cheap and greed is master, when the self is more important than others.

32 comments:

  1. I'm not familiar with H D Carberry, but I note he was born in the same year as my father (who would definitely have taken a more positive view of his era).
    What year was the poem written, I wonder?
    Cheers, Gail.

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    1. I can't find much information about H D Carberry. 'Epitaph' was included in an anthology of his works , 'It Takes a Mighty Fire', published in 1995, six years after his death. Odd!

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  2. A poem of sorrows and unmet expectations I think.

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  3. Oh yes, so very apt for our times.

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    1. It's not all doom and gloom, though it feels like that sometimes.

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  4. It's a good piece. I was a boy in Montreal, so that is a connection with the poet.

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  5. So, do you speak French? Sorry if you're tired of that question.

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  6. Very sobering and very true.
    Alison in Wales x

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  7. Reading that I assumed it was a modern poem. Grim days.

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  8. Oh dear what a deeply sad poem that does unfortunately convey a lot of what is wrong in the world - I agree with your last paragraph.

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    1. Sadly, there are always troubles in the world and the lamentations are repeated from generation to generation.

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  9. Profundo poema . La humanidad es su propia enemiga y destruirá todo lo que se ponga a su alrededor. Te mando un beso.

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  10. There is indeed so much unrest at the moment in our world, it is very concerning.

    I do my best to make my corner of it as pleasant as possible, spread some kindness every day.

    All the best Jan

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    1. Individuals are kind and compassionate, usually, but it all goes awry with politics.

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  11. Definitely a poem of the day.

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  12. This poem tugged at my heart. Thank you for it.

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  13. Fear twisted hearts... Perhaps he was not writing about any age he had lived through but was expressing a portent of the future.

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  14. Perhaps so. I can't find much information about him.

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  15. I think the sobering lesson here is that (to paraphrase the American author Mark Twain) "history never repeats itself, but it does often rhymes." H D Carberry seems to have written a lot of nature poetry, also, on a less gloomy note.

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  16. Such a poignant poem, and very apt for this day and age indeed. I too am wondering about the year this poem was written. xxx

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  17. A very thought provoking poem and your observations so true.

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