ODE ON SUMMER

                     

                             

                              ( I )

            

   After hot, hot summer noon-hours

   After wild western fiery showers

   When none dares to walk out

   When all in closed doors sigh out;

   Hot breaths feverish, lying below

   Fan’s hotter winds, pale faces yellow

   Wishing cool breeze and dreamy winks

   Cold water glassfuls every mouth drinks

   Yawning “Lord”, everybody sinks

    Mercury with a malicious blink

    Shoots up as fatigued people snore

    While people outside move out from doors

    Covering their heads with cloth to face the blazing sun;

    Even birds and beasts for cool shelter run;

                                ( I I ) 

    Summer-baked leaves fall down, nay summer-fried

    Huts, tents and houses burn and hay-stacks dried;

    Forge and furnace everyone seems to be

    Wild deserts in burning eyes you see;

    Rash-torn itchy skins, boils, sweat and sun strokes. 

    Dried up ponds, lakes and wells black as coke;

    Not a glimpse of shining cool waters in sight

    A long line of empty pitchers show people’s plight   

    Oh, is it Phaethon’s mismanagement!

    Or sun’s sudden orbital displacement!

    Houses hot like burning hot Arabian tents

    Earth so horribly cracked and shreds dry-rent!

                             ( I I I )

    Sings not cuckoo even in spring so hot

    Even birds can’t bear this steaming draught;

    Sweat-sodden faces crave for cooler nights

    Still hotter winds blow with pollution’s blight;

    Like burnt dome of coal the dark night seems now

    Even lakes seem hot like cauldrons on a stove;

    People search for swimming pools and lakes

    For juicy fruits and ice their thirst to slake;

    Water, sherbet, cold baths and fruits— our summer’s treat

    Cheer our sun-scorched faces in spite of heat.

                 ******************************************

     24th June, 2019                    Somaseshu Gutala


    Ref : Phaethon -- son of Helios, the Greek sun god. Challenged by his playmates to prove that he was the son of Helios, he insisted on being allowed to drive the sun chariot for a day. Phaethon was unable to control the sun horses. When the chariot scorched the earth by swinging too near, Zeus (the chief of Greek gods) hurled a thunderbolt to prevent the destruction of the earth. As a result Phaethon was thrown down to earth and was killed.

                         
                             

  Note : In this loose irregular ode, lines of varying length with couplet rhymes are used.The length of stanzas also vary in length. Generally in odes complicated rhyme scheme is used to deal with a complex theme.Here the simple couplet form is chosen and the woes of blazing summer in tropics is the main theme of this descriptive ode.