I was contemplating what I should talk about in this blog when the thought hit me: Santiago is sort of an epic hero right? He goes on a quest by himself, he shouldn't come back alive but does and beats the odds, no one knows his last name (the only epic heroe that I can think of that has a last name is Luke Skywalker and his story isn't even told in a book or poem [ex. Beowulf, Odysseus, Perseus, Achilles, Jesus...]), and I would assume the marlin's skeleton on the old man's skiff would make him a fishing legend. Because Santiago has the basic characteristics of an epic hero, plus meets all the qualifications that I can think of at this moment, that means he needs an epic poem!
There once was an old man who fished in the sea
He voyaged all day and night and it was sometimes eerie
But the old man was looking long and hard
To find a large fish to bring back to the shipyard
He tried to catch a big fish for three days and two nights
But the marlin put up quite a lengthy fight
After the old man had roped the fish to his skiff
A couple of nearby sharks got a whiff
They came and attacked the old man and his fish
The battles brought the old man a lot of anguish
After the sharks were gone at last
The old man returned to his port and lowered his mast
Finally home, he was sleepy, worn down, and sore
Then the old man awoke to find the boy on the floor
The boy asked "How much did you suffer?"
The old man answered "plenty" without a stutter
The boy gave him food and left with his eyes moisten
While at the harbor a crowd was amazed at an eighteen foot skeleton.
Ta da! Whew. That took me a while. Apparently the only thing that rhymes with Santiago is afro, furlough, and window. I couldn't fit those in so he was the old man for the duration of the poem. The quotes were (Hemingway 126). I didn't want to put it in the poem and mess with the line spaces. I feel accomplished now. I am a blogger and a poet!
"Free Rhyming Dictionary." Write Express. WriteExpress Corporation. Web. 07 July 2011.
Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.
not sure it's quite an EPIC poem considering they are usually MUCH longer in length, BUT awesome attempt nonetheless and quite entertaining! :)
ReplyDeleteMrs Oh! Those 17 lines took me an hour because I kept ending lines with words that don't rhyme with anything, then had to reword the line. Writing rhyming (almost epic) poetry is harder than it seems:) I don't know how Homer did it!
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