Analysis of The Epic of Gilgamesh: The fall from the Light
Keith Lankford 1964 (AL)
Into the darkness
He slowly did fall
As he told the tale
As he left all
The world of the living
Slipping away
To the House of dust
Where he would stay
The angel of death
Had taken his hand
Gilgamesh save me
Make one final stand
Enkidu my friend
I will battle for you
When you arrive
Forget all you knew
Stray from the land
In spirit you might
First gather for me
The drum which sounds in the night
Into the Nether World he had arrived
Semi divine and with much pride
Now with the dead he made his home
Clothed in bird feathers his immortality now known
Knowing full well
What not to do
Yet banished to hell
He did as he so choose
Defiant in death
As in his life
His spirit was trapped
Deep eternal night
Crying to the gods
In the heavens above
Save Enkidu
For my friend I have much love
Enki and Shamash
Heard his trumpeting pleas
Yes we will help
Gilgamesh oh thee
Shamash with much force cracked open the Earthly lands
Enkidu’s spirit took flight, returning though once banned
Into the eyes of his brother in arms he did stare
As he told his tale of what he had gathered there
Surpassing all other kings
He who saw the deep
Found these possessions
To be ones he wished to keep
But as he soon ventured off
To distant foreign worlds
In anger he lashed out
As his fate unfurled
Scheme | XAXA XBCB DEFE XGXG EHFH XXXX IGIX DXXH XJCJ XXXF XEKK XLXLXXXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01010 11011 11101 1111 011010 1001 10111 1111 01011 11011 111 11101 111 111011 1101 01111 1101 01011 11011 0111001 0101011101 10010111 11011111 101101010011 1011 1111 11011 111111 01001 1011 11011 10101 10101 001001 11 1111111 101 111001 1111 111 11111100101 11011010111 0101111001111 111111111101 0101101 11101 11010 1111111 1111101 110101 010111 11101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,300 |
Words | 271 |
Sentences | 1 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 8 |
Lines Amount | 52 |
Letters per line (avg) | 20 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 86 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 21 |
About this poem
Enkidu banished to the netherworld
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"The Epic of Gilgamesh: The fall from the Light" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/114180/the-epic-of-gilgamesh%3A-the-fall-from-the-light>.
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