{"sf1_id":811382,"sf2_id":"k1VP5XDm","title":"Triumph and Tragedy (A battle ballad)","author":"SilverrFox","words":978,"posted_at":"2015-01-25T03:33:00.000Z","tags":["Death","Epic","Fight","Fighting","Gay","Love","M/M","Male","No-Yiff","Poem","War"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/811382-triumph-and-tragedy-a-battle-ballad","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/k1VP5XDm","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/dc/52/dc524057-476f-47b2-8762-4ade15834a5c","description":"#19 of Writing Prompt Group Submissions\n\nI want to state up front that I am not a poet, nor have I ever written poetry before. I wrote this piece in response to the latest assignment for the Writing Prompt Group, which had the theme \"Battle\". We were directed to convey a narrative within a combat scene and only write within the actual time period of the combat. That made me think something heroic and epic was needed. A ballad seemed like a good idea to satisfy the prompt.\nAnyway, here is my first attempt at what may or may not be considered poetry. It is intended to be a lyrical ballad with ABCB rhyme with iambic trimeter in B and iambic tetrameter in A and C, which means eight syllables in the first and third lines and six in the second and fourth lines of each stanza with the second and fourth lines rhyming. I doubt I got all the accents right, but I gave it my best shot.\nThis is derived from an ongoing RP that has not been published. It tells how Magnus, an anthro-fox, lost his love, Roland. It is a pivotal moment in his life that leads him down a tragic path.","content":"I, Magnus, am a silver fox,\n\nA soldier since age ten;\n\nI wear half the colors of my\n\nLand, so cruelly riven.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nA young captain in red and white,\n\nI stand here on this day,\n\nPartly clad by tri colored flag\n\nEager to join the fray.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nWe stand opposed by our lost half,\n\nWho wear the colors lost,\n\nSmartly attired in green and white.\n\n'Tis kin war's tragic cost.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nColumns of fresh crisp uniforms\n\nStand at the end of night.\n\nLined up like toy tin soldiers, just\n\nPawns in the general's sight.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nMy mate, Roland, a captain, too,\n\nStands somewhere to my right\n\nCommanding columns of young men\n\nAll certain of their might;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nHolding fiercely to false feelings\n\nOf immortality,\n\nEach believing he won't become\n\nToday's fatality.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nIt is a way to calm one's soul,\n\nKnowing the dice will roll,\n\nAnd the random numbers thrown will\n\nDetermine death's grim toll.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nAll must believe that they will cheat\n\nThe odds that favor death.\n\nYet, many will lose the gambler's\n\nGame, ending still of breath.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nCivil war, the worst sort we know.\n\nBrothers fighting brothers,\n\nFathers versus sons; leaving homes\n\nFilled with grieving mothers.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nEach fight a poignant tragedy.\n\nBlood flows like a river\n\nThat fills an ocean tide, drowning\n\nBoth shores without favor.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nYears of sorrow creating new\n\nEpitaphs carved in stone\n\nThat can't crush dreams of victory\n\nFrom hope carelessly sown.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nEach army thirsts for victory\n\nIn a war without end.\n\nOptimism runs high that war\n\nCan a torn nation mend,\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nBut 'tis doomed to be a bloody\n\nAbattoir that adjoins\n\nDebt in lives unredeemable\n\nBy any miser's coin.\n\n1\n\nThe enemy was on our land\n\nand we on the defense.\n\nWe held ground more favorable,\n\nBut their army was immense.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nAn artillery barrage brought\n\nfalse dawn to start our day.\n\nTrue sunrise made cannon halt and\n\nTheir troops to march our way.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n'Twas a glorious sight to see\n\nColumns in perfect squares,\n\nThousands in precise step, as if\n\nOf chaos unawares.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nFife and drum accompany flags\n\nUnfurled in dawn's first breeze.\n\nMartial music stirs all hearts so\n\nWe forget our unease.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nGreen are yet far beyond musket\n\nRange when a line concealed\n\nIs crossed that triggers the command\n\n\"Fire!\" and red cannons deal\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nRuin while voicing \"Death!\" Thunder\n\nRoars and the neat little\n\nColumns erupt with black blossoms\n\nThat turn men's bones brittle.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nBravery fails. Training takes over.\n\nMen march forward heedless\n\nOf airborne murder that thins but\n\nFails to slow their progress.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nI find my own voice when they reach\n\nMy secret boundary.\n\nMy command lost amid the smoke\n\nAnd clash of Hell's foundry\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nAs my men fire into their ranks\n\nAs one, and then reload.\n\nFast discovered mortality\n\nIs the harvest we sowed.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe drummer's beat was buried 'neath\n\nAn avalanche of screams ignored\n\nBy men bent on breaking our line\n\nWith force of gun and sword,\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nBut our volleys made them halt and\n\nStagger like a drunken\n\nSerpent unsure where to strike as\n\nIt's body was shrunken.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nSo the middle held and my men\n\nDid shout triumphantly\n\nAs our flanks collapsed and our foe's\n\nPlan lost all subtlety.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nReinforcements sallied in to\n\nsave the left, but the right\n\nWas forgotten by the gen'rals\n\nWho had limited sight.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nA dutiful soldier obeys\n\ncommands, but also must\n\nShow initiative. \u0026nbsp;When plans fail,\n\nThe best learn to adjust.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nWith the center safe, and finding\n\nAll other captains dead,\n\nI gathered up two hundred men.\n\nTo save the right I led.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n'Twould be a lie to claim that I\n\nHad only motives pure.\n\nThe fate of my dear Roland was\n\nMy intent to ensure.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nHis banner flew upon a knoll\n\nSurrounded by green waves\n\nOf a hostile sea threatening\n\nTo sweep them to their graves.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nWith roles reversed, I attacked and\n\nmy suicide charge gained\n\nMore momentum than it deserved,\n\nAs if it were ordained\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nBy gods who habitually\n\nPlay with our mortal lives\n\nAnd derive pleasure for themselves\n\nAs naught but sorrow thrives.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nMusket fire tore through our advance\n\nAs men snapped like tinder.\n\nDeaf were we to agonized screams\n\nLest our charge be hindered.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nLead swarming like bees filled the air\n\nFinding mark after mark\n\nWith the distinctive thunk that meant\n\nMore lives lost before dark.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nWhy none hit me is a riddle\n\nFor wise men to ponder;\n\nPerhaps it was my dreary fate\n\nE're alone to wander.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nFor good or bad, for woe or weal,\n\nWe made it through to him,\n\nBut my true purpose was for naught\n\nAs I bore the god's whim.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe tempest raged 'round our island.\n\nFor it I had no care.\n\n'Twas luck my selfish lovers charge\n\nCaught our foe unaware.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n'Neath bodies heaped I found him hurt;\n\nA sword thrust through his chest.\n\n'Twas plain I'd lose my wolf afore\n\nThe sun set in the west.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nAccepting fate, his spirit's paw\n\nReached out toward the light.\n\nI raged and cried denying truth\n\nLeading a hopeless fight.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nRoland vouchsafed his love for me;\n\nA crucial last address.\n\nWhy did I not exclaim the same\n\nAnd yield a sweet caress?\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nInstead I yelled for medics where\n\nI knew that there were none;\n\nThough e'en the surgeon's care could not\n\nReverse what had been done.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThus his body sagged in my arms\n\nafter a final breath,\n\nMy only hope to rejoin him\n\nLay somewhere after death.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nLater I'd be hailed a hero\n\nfor deeds done on that day,\n\nBut to have my Roland back I'd\n\nToss victory away.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThough general great I became,\n\nInside I now was dead;\n\nThe deep regret of words unsaid\n\nForever in my head.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n[END]\n\n  \n  \n\n","series":{"name":"Writing Prompt Group Submissions","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/806586-kurt-and-the-faerie-queen-another-not-grimm-furry-tale.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/831922-easter-is-a-furry-holiday.json"}}