English Words

Speech that came like leech-craft

And killed us almost, bleeding us white!

You bleached our souls soiled with impurities.

You bathed our hearts amid tempestuous seas

Of a purer, drearier, delight.

O tongues of fire! You came devouring

Forests of nightshade, creepers that enmesh,

Trees that never remembered to grow,

And shrubs that were but thornmills in our flesh.

You were the dawn, and sunlight filled the spaces

Where owls were hovering.

O winged seeds! You crossed the furrowed seas

To nestle in the warm and silent earth.

Like a golden swarm of fireflies you came

Pining for a new agony, a new birth.

You blossomed into a nascent loveliness.

You ripened into nectar in fruit-jars

That hung like clustered stars.

O winging words! Like homing bees you borrow

Grown murmurous, the honey of delight,

Pollened within our hearts the coming morrow,

Sweetened within our souls for aeons bright:

You kindle in the far corners of the earth

The music of an ever-deepening chant:

The burthen of a waneless, winterless spring,

The gospel of an endless blossoming.

Fathomless words, with Indo-Aryan blood

Tingling in your veins.

The spoils of ages, global merchandise

Mingling in your strains!

You pose the cosmic riddles:

In the beginning was the Word

And the Word was God.

The Word is in the middle

And the Word is Man.

In the end will be the Word

And the Word will be God in Man.

-V. K. Gokak

Alliteration:

You   bleached our souls soiled with impurities – s

Of   a purer, drearier, delight – d

You   were the dawn, and sunlight filled the spaces – s

O   winged seeds! You crossed the furrowed seas – s

O   winging words! Like homing bees you borrow – w, b

Sweetened within our souls for aeons   bright – s

The   burthen of a waneless, winterless spring – w

Simile:

Speech   that came like leech-craft

Like a golden swarm of fireflies you   came

O   winging words! Like homing bees you borrow

Metaphor:

And   shrubs that were but thornmills in our flesh

You   were the dawn, and sunlight filled the spaces

O   winged seeds! You crossed the furrowed seas

Personification:

And   killed us almost, bleeding us white

You   blossomed into a nascent loveliness

Fathomless   words, with Indo–Aryan blood

Anaphora:

You bleached our souls soiled with   impurities.

You bathed our hearts amid tempestuous   seas

You blossomed into a nascent   loveliness.

You ripened into nectar in fruit-jars

The music of an ever-deepening chant:

The burthen of a waneless, winterless   spring,

The gospel of an endless blossoming.

Repetition:

Pining   for a new agony, a new birth

In   the beginning was the Word

And   the Word was God.

The   Word is in the middle

And   the Word is Man.

In   the end will be the Word

And   the Word will be God in Man.

Rhyme Scheme & Rhyme Words

abba – Devouring, hovering ; enmesh,   flesh;

abcb – Earth, birth ;

abab – Borrow, morrow ; delight,   bright ; veins, strains; god, word ; man, man;