"Entry of Alexander into Babylon" by Charles Le BrunA Poem on Babylon Then and Now, by G.M.H. Thompson The Society November 18, 2023 Culture, Poetry 8 Comments . Babylon (or Shelly’s “Ozymandias” Paraphrased) . Oh Babylon, sweet Babylon, how long your skeleton has rotted in the sun— your name intoxicates like honeyed wine & makes me smell your incense in my mind & see your ziggurats & pleasure domes & zoos exotic creatures once called home, & though the Hanging Gardens may have been in Nineveh, you surely housed their twin. The desert sands are now the citizens of Nippur, Uruk, Eridu, Isin, & Ur, whose temple looks on empty wastes, a monument to long forgotten days;— if Hammurabi walked the earth once more, he’d weep to see his rich empire so poor. . . G.M.H. Thompson spent the last year teaching in Ha Noi, Viet Nam. He recently put out a book of illustrated sonnets entitled Quetzalcoatl, available through on Amazon. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)Trending now: 8 Responses Daniel Kemper November 18, 2023 Fascinating take on Babylon — to my ear poetically ambiguous for whether we should weep its passing or celebrate as ancient Israelites surely did. Reply Cynthia Erlandson November 18, 2023 This poem is beautifully descriptive, with vivid visual imagery and sharp olfactory phrases. “Your skeleton has rotted in the sun” is just marvelous — as are “You surely housed their twin” and “He’d weep to see his rich empire so poor.” Excellent stuff! Reply G.M.H. Thompson November 20, 2023 Yeah, I’m really into Ancient Mesopotamia– I’ll probably be writing some more about it in the future. Reply G.M.H. Thompson November 20, 2023 *probably Margaret Coats November 18, 2023 Rich revelry of thoughts about great beauties of the past in the octave. Third quatrain becomes a monument of ancient names, much more than of that one temple in Ur. The figure of Hammurabi in the couplet brings in human historic interest, and unlike Shelley’s Ozymandias, he walks and weeps with or for the reader, who can sympathize with him or not. An enjoyable and effective sonnet. Reply G.M.H. Thompson November 20, 2023 I’m really into Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and there’s that one episode where it ends with The Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future giving a lecture about the importance of going back into the past to kill Carl because he has a hair system that in fact is just a piece of metal crudely grafted to his skull, and then The Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future tries to go back in time to kill Carl, but he can’t because his futuristic time machine is just a cardboard refrigerator box. That scene really inspired that final couplet. Reply BDW November 19, 2023 Th’ attempt is worthy. It does show you have been stirred by the Romantics. That is a good place to fight through to reach the NewMillennium. As you used & here & in “Two Dragon Statues”, I would argue that Cumming’s use of the ampersand is more interesting than Berryman’s…by far. As for approximate rhymes, Dickinson remains supreme. Reply G.M.H. Thompson November 20, 2023 I don’t know, I’m not really one of those people who believes there’s gonna be some kind of apocalypse followed by a golden Aquarian age, although really, from the grand historical perspective, the internet is a huge change & might be the start of some kind of new age, for better or for worse. As far as ampersands are concerned, I don’t really use those based on other poets (& though I read his Dream Songs– I found them quite forgettable– I can’t even remember what they were about, let alone slight minutia like “and” vs. “&”). It’s just, usually, to my eye, although not always, “&” is both more eloquent and more elegant than “and”. That’s the main reason I use them so often– it just looks cooler. If there were more symbols like that in English to shorten words into little symbol blocks, I would use a lot of those, too. Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Daniel Kemper November 18, 2023 Fascinating take on Babylon — to my ear poetically ambiguous for whether we should weep its passing or celebrate as ancient Israelites surely did. Reply
Cynthia Erlandson November 18, 2023 This poem is beautifully descriptive, with vivid visual imagery and sharp olfactory phrases. “Your skeleton has rotted in the sun” is just marvelous — as are “You surely housed their twin” and “He’d weep to see his rich empire so poor.” Excellent stuff! Reply
G.M.H. Thompson November 20, 2023 Yeah, I’m really into Ancient Mesopotamia– I’ll probably be writing some more about it in the future. Reply
Margaret Coats November 18, 2023 Rich revelry of thoughts about great beauties of the past in the octave. Third quatrain becomes a monument of ancient names, much more than of that one temple in Ur. The figure of Hammurabi in the couplet brings in human historic interest, and unlike Shelley’s Ozymandias, he walks and weeps with or for the reader, who can sympathize with him or not. An enjoyable and effective sonnet. Reply
G.M.H. Thompson November 20, 2023 I’m really into Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and there’s that one episode where it ends with The Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future giving a lecture about the importance of going back into the past to kill Carl because he has a hair system that in fact is just a piece of metal crudely grafted to his skull, and then The Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future tries to go back in time to kill Carl, but he can’t because his futuristic time machine is just a cardboard refrigerator box. That scene really inspired that final couplet. Reply
BDW November 19, 2023 Th’ attempt is worthy. It does show you have been stirred by the Romantics. That is a good place to fight through to reach the NewMillennium. As you used & here & in “Two Dragon Statues”, I would argue that Cumming’s use of the ampersand is more interesting than Berryman’s…by far. As for approximate rhymes, Dickinson remains supreme. Reply
G.M.H. Thompson November 20, 2023 I don’t know, I’m not really one of those people who believes there’s gonna be some kind of apocalypse followed by a golden Aquarian age, although really, from the grand historical perspective, the internet is a huge change & might be the start of some kind of new age, for better or for worse. As far as ampersands are concerned, I don’t really use those based on other poets (& though I read his Dream Songs– I found them quite forgettable– I can’t even remember what they were about, let alone slight minutia like “and” vs. “&”). It’s just, usually, to my eye, although not always, “&” is both more eloquent and more elegant than “and”. That’s the main reason I use them so often– it just looks cooler. If there were more symbols like that in English to shorten words into little symbol blocks, I would use a lot of those, too. Reply