Argent Banner on a Sable Field | Teen Ink

Argent Banner on a Sable Field

June 25, 2014
By BrightBurningCampeador PLATINUM, Portland, Oregon
BrightBurningCampeador PLATINUM, Portland, Oregon
42 articles 11 photos 333 comments

Argent banners fly o’er
Battlements strong and high.
Chatoyant silk garbs the noble ladies and
Damask their chivalrous lords.
Enthralled are they,
Fraught with their own fetid grandeur,
Giving no thought

to the woes of the morrow.
Hailing the festive night,

they forget the bloody dawn.
In the morning they shall weep,

these fairest of all damsels,
Just now realizing that their handsome knights

shall surely die.
Kissed a fond farewell, they
Linger in this stone cold keep,
Marinading in their own fear and sorrow.
Nothing can halt

the inexorable march of war.
On distant fields shall young men die,
Paladins of a hopeless cause,
Questioning not their sacred duty:

to kill and to be killed,
Rending souls, even as they do flesh.
Stalwart warriors indeed,

to endure this bloody combat.
Tiffany flesh torn by Damascus steel
Until the battle ends, and they,

stumbling, return to their ladies.
Verily, though, they shall forget the blood

and the gore and the never ending scream
When again the call to arms

rings forth across the land.
Xiphias gladius of this, humanity’s sea.
Yet, for a single night

they are content in their revelry, the
Zephyr of Mars still far beneath

the eastern horizon.


The author's comments:
Provided that the page this is put on does not butcher the formatting, as such pages are wont to do, this poem is an abecedarian poem. Oh, and you may notice that I'm a tad anti-war. If so, you are mistaken: I am in fact tremendously anti-war. Enjoy!

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This article has 6 comments.


on Aug. 19 2014 at 4:21 pm
BrightBurningCampeador PLATINUM, Portland, Oregon
42 articles 11 photos 333 comments
Thanks for the feedback. I like to use obscure, complicated words, because though they may seem archaic I personally find them fresher than the stale, overused vocabulary of everyday language. English has so many words, each with its own unique meaning, its own connotations. It seems like such a waste not to use them.   Oh, and "argent" and "sable" are heraldric tinctures, or colors. They mean silver and black respectively. Field is also a heraldric term, its the background that a coat of arms or whatever is put on. The title isn't meant literally, that would be a pretty stupid looking coat of arms, but I thought that that juxtaposition of silver and black, said in very ornate language, was a good reflection of what I was trying to convey with this poem.

Longlegs GOLD said...
on Aug. 19 2014 at 9:13 am
Longlegs GOLD, Greeneville, Tennessee
16 articles 0 photos 84 comments
Congratulations for writing such a great poem in abecedarian (also called alphabet) style! The formatting is messed up, but I can see where the lines are supposed to break. This poem is a little old-fashioned and difficult to understand; Starting with the title "Argent Banner on a Sable Field." It is not exactly a very grabbing title. (Anyone have a clue what "argent" and "sable" means? Anyone particularly interested in banners and fields?) The rest of the poem also is filled with words and phrases that not many people know the defenition of. "Chatoyant" "damask" "chivalrous" "fraught" "inexorable" "revelry", etc. We don't usually use these words in our daily language.                                           It is quite Shakespearish (with all the old-languagish expressions), but that is great. Nobody seems to be writing Shakespearish poems in the modern world, so it stands out. Your poem is full of creative, interesting words, and no cliches. It is very unique, so please don't change it. Keep writing!                                                                                     

on Jul. 21 2014 at 8:31 pm
BrightBurningCampeador PLATINUM, Portland, Oregon
42 articles 11 photos 333 comments
thanks so much

--Em-- GOLD said...
on Jul. 20 2014 at 9:02 pm
--Em-- GOLD, Grand Rapids, Michigan
15 articles 0 photos 32 comments
this poem is beautiful, even if the formatting is messed up :)  

on Jul. 17 2014 at 10:29 pm
BrightBurningCampeador PLATINUM, Portland, Oregon
42 articles 11 photos 333 comments
Okay here's how the formatting is supposed to be. Where there's a space between lines, like between the 9th and 10th lines, it's actually supposed to be an indent (in other words a tab rather than an enter). Any line, other than the ones that were supposed to be indented, that start with a lowercase letter is actually meant to be part of the previous line. I don't know if anyone will bother to take this into account, but it would be great if you could. Although, who knows, maybe this messed up formatting is actually better than what I came up with (:

on Jun. 26 2014 at 11:21 pm
BrightBurningCampeador PLATINUM, Portland, Oregon
42 articles 11 photos 333 comments
Darn it!!! They did butcher the formatting!!!