Sorrow, sadness, despair. These are strong feelings, which all of us do experience at some point in life. A song comes to mind. The classic 2011 hit Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye (anyone else wondering where he went? I don't think he ever dropped another song after that!). I recall one of the lyrics, "you get addicted to a certain kind of sadness". I remember first hearing that all those years ago and thinking that it was so oddly true. It's so easy to slip into a rut and ease oneself into a cycle of sorrowful thoughts. It's funny, because I don't think that sadness is addictive in the sense that we get a high or some sort of happiness from it. It's just really easy to get comfortable in a not-so-healthy headspace, and therefore, I suppose it can be called somewhat addictive.
Sadness is the subject of so many poems, books, paintings, movies, songs...I could go on and on. Maybe that's because humans just have a tendency to ruminate, or maybe it's because it's a universal emotion that every person has experienced at some point in some form. Edgar Allan Poe, arguably one of the most famous poets and writers of all time, wrote extensively about sadness.
Poe has so many famously profound quotes on the topic of human sorrow, but this one is probably my favourite:
“And so being young and dipped in folly I fell in love with melancholy.”
I find that the emotion of sadness or sorrow has an almost inherently poetic nature, more so than the other emotions. That's why I often find myself turning to writing poetry when something causes me sadness. I wrote this poem almost as an outlet for my feelings when I was feeling rather blue. Do feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!
From the deep, damned rose
Bled the cloying ichor
Of the sweet, sound ropes
‘Round the depths of my heart.
From my mortal’s window
Stemmed the raving lover
Like the snake’s white shadow
‘Round the depths of my heart.
Out the roaring menace
Slid the unburnt evils
Like the ghosts of solace
Down the depths of my heart.
To the wilding flowers
Went the flagrant tenants
Of the razor towers
Down the depths of my heart.
In the warm-gold yonder
Laughs the old blue spirit
That shall only wander
'Round the depths of my heart.
See the lonely ravens
Sap the far-gone liquor
Of my deep blue shadow,
Of the world’s dead marrow,
Of such homebrew sorrow,
Of this farcing flambeau—
Did One but wilt —
In crescendo?
© 2016 Shreya Alagramam
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