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The Five Ages

Beneath rose bower and sweet cherry shade
Long since have Saturn’s golden people slept
And for their sins the silver race were swept
Hence and in lightning-blasted clefts were laid;
Next were the bronze folk in the balance weighed
And wanting found and crumbled into dust;
Then came the heroes. All are gone, by lust,
Pride, envy, madness, rage and guile betrayed.
What will become of us, the iron race,
The fifth and meanest that was brought to birth?
From past experience, I would have guessed
Some dreadful fate will drive us from our place.
Till then, I am content to walk the earth
With you. Let Saturn keep his shadows blest.

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Morrison Handley-Schachler is a retired Chartered Public Finance Accountant and Lecturer in Accounting. He has a doctorate in Ancient History and has published articles on ancient Persian history, accounting history, financial crime, auditing and financial risk management. He lives in South Queensferry, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Scotland.

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10 Responses

  1. Joseph S. Salemi

    A neatly constructed sonnet that flows smoothly and with no bumps.

    The Roman satirist Juvenal suggested that a sixth age would follow — that of lead. It would deliver us to levels of debasement inconceivable even in the worst of the Iron Age.

    I think we’re in the Age of Lead right now.

    Reply
  2. Morrison Handley-Schachler

    Thank you for your kind and observant comment. I fear that you and Juvenal may be right.

    Reply
  3. Julian D. Woodruff

    A vivid, elegant sonnet. I especially like “lightning-blasted clefts.”
    If iron:
    Iron types like to give themselves a kick,
    If not square in the ass, then in the belly.
    But then we all know they are none too slick:
    Their iron often seems a lot like jelly.
    If lead:
    The leaden race (that’s leaden, as in “dense”)
    Is short of many things–like common sense.
    Thanks. Post here again soon.

    Reply
    • Morrison Handley-Schachler

      Thank you for your observant and poetic contribution, which I enjoyed reading.

      Reply
  5. C.B. Anderson

    And I can barely wait for the subsequent ages, those of, say, phosphorus and sulfur.

    Reply
  6. Margaret Coats

    Nicely done outline of the ages, Morrison, concluded by a charming couplet. The “earth” in line 13 suggests the clay that’s combined with iron in the last age–if ages are taken from the Daniel rather than Hesiod.

    Reply
  7. Morrison Handley-Schachler

    Thank you very much for your comments, Margaret. Yes, Daniel is a good extension of Hesiod’s story of the five ages. Thanks for pointing this out.

    Reply

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