SPRING AWAKENING
By Rachel Nathanson
The innocent child, so wholesome, so pure,
The rebellious schoolboy who longs for the truth,
The frustrated students, who want so much more,
New dreamlike feelings; young love is uncouth.
The horror, the suffering, the pain of a child abused.
A tortured boy who's failed and given up on himself,
A haunted soul, child and man together, infused.
Two young lovers, joined in unison, discover themselves.
He lifts the gun to his head. No one can save him now.
His loved ones gather to mourn his death; the tears fall, fast.
You're blamed for his death. The question is…how?
A new life; an angel of the future, and the ghosts of the past.
Those you've known and lost still live within your heart
Spring has passed, tragedy ensured; let there be a new start.
APPEAL: Spring Awakening is one of my favorite musicals. The music is so touching, so I decided to write a poem about it.
POETIC DEVICES:
RHYME: This poem is a sonnet, which has a rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG.
RHYTHM: This poem has iambic pentameter.
PERSONIFICATION: "An angel of the future, and the ghosts of the past."
THEME: This poem is based on the songs of the Broadway Musical Spring Awakening.
"SPRING AWAKENING takes its
inspiration from one of literature's most controversial
masterpieces – a work so daring in its depiction of teenage
self-discovery, it was banned from the stage and not performed in its
complete form in English for nearly 100 years.
It's Germany,
1891. A world where the grown-ups hold all the cards. The
beautiful young Wendla explores the mysteries of her body, and
wonders aloud where babies come from, till Mama tells her to shut it,
and put on a proper dress.
Elsewhere, the brilliant and fearless
young Melchior interrupts a mind-numbing Latin drill to defend his
buddy Moritz – a boy so traumatized by puberty he can't
concentrate on anything. Not that the Headmaster cares. He strikes them both and tells them to turn in their lesson.
One
afternoon – in a private place in the woods – Melchior and Wendla
meet by accident, and soon find within themselves a desire unlike
anything they've ever felt.
As they fumble their way into one
another's arms, Moritz flounders and soon fails out of school. When even his one adult friend, Melchior's mother, ignores his plea
for help, he is left so distraught he can't hear the promise of
life offered by his outcast friend Ilse.
Naturally, the
Headmasters waste no time in pinning the "crime" of Moritz's
suicide on Melchior and expel him. And soon Mama learns her
little Wendla is pregnant. Now the young lovers must struggle
against all odds to build a world together for their child."
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Each line is based on one song from the musical. Some songs have been combined into one line to stick to a sonnets 14 line limit.