The Doomed Love by the Adige

The Doomed Love by the Adige

PART I

This tragic tale of lost love sits

Between a battle’s florid fits,

This pointless plague that, cycling, pits

The Montagues and Capulets

In Verona by the Adige.

The daylight is consumed by strife,

While the nightlife hours are rife

With dance doomed like a deadly knife;

Love's game the young do play

The house of Capulet takes pride

In youth, not yet been made a bride,

Though whispers in the town confide

That for a wife the child is eyed,

In Verona by the Adige.

Juliet, the young and fair, 

Quick of eye and soft and spare,

Budding, flowering one, beware

Love’s game the young do play.

Romeo the Montague

Chased flames that came as heart’s sparks flew.

Though he throws dice that go askew,

With heady passions he pursues

The maidens of the Adige.

Bold to speak and quick of heart, 

From Cupid he has learned his art

In maidens’ souls a fire to start

Through games the young do play.

The life of noble city small,

Round which the pulsing river’s sprawl

Gives melody to hate’s harsh call,

Crushes love in violent squall: 

Verona by the Adige.

Two houses tall in nighttime loom,

Bathed in hatred’s rich perfume.

Though both conspire the other’s doom,

Love's game the young do play.

PART II

To lofty house of star-crossed rhyme

The roguish Romeo did climb,

Heartsick over Rosalind,

To distract himself in dance sublime

In Verona by the Adige.

To candled house of enemy, light,

The lover Romeo took flight

To flee rejection’s aching plight;

Love’s game no more to play.

But Rosalind sweet he forgot.

His eyes a fairer maid then caught,

And quickly tied, his heart did knot,

And mind gave him one fevered thought,

Rushing like the Adige.

He must be wed to maiden sweet,

With flowing hair and dancing feet.

Though thrilling lives had yet to meet,

The heartbeat song of love did play

He sought a stranger passing by

To ask of maid who caught his eye,

And, breathless, waited for reply

That would his joy, through hope, supply 

In Verona by the Adige.

“Juliet the jewel-laced child,”

A Capulet, though sweet and mild.

Her family would him revile 

Should they know his play

But “Juliet!” His heart did reach,

Like waves pulled up on sandy beach

Desire the star-gowned sky to breach,

Consuming heady, wondrous speech

Reflected in the Adige.

Then ‘cross the room the maid did look,

And straight away his heart betook

To schemes of how the maid to hook

In maddened game that he did play.

He crept to garden, candlelit,

Below the large window to sit

And call her name, as would befit

The one whose heart did now admit

That maiden by the Adige.

The maid looked out on would-be groom.

Blinded to her coming doom,

Her budding heart began to bloom,

And a song of love did play.

She called to him with whispers sweet,

And in dawn’s light they planned to meet

A priest, their marriage to complete,

Then bring these two to one heartbeat

In Verona by the Adige.

In the morning, side by side

They promised to in love abide.

There her horizon met his tide,

And victory came from his play.

PART III

Their happy days passed in a glance,

For treasured truth led secret dance,

The maiden hiding her romance,

For by no means could someone chance

On oath sworn by the Adige.

Romeo by night would creep

To house, but only when others did sleep,

For dirge would play if eye would peep

Upon the love they two did play.

But one day deep the sun did sink

Behind the mountains and river’s brink.

Fair Juliet began to think

He broke their sworn and sacred link

In Verona by the Adige. 

She sat awake as time crept by

Until the vigil burned her eye

But never did youthful form spy.

She cursed him in his play

The sun arose on empty day,

And languid heart about did stray,

For youthful love not long will stay.

Her doom he brought; it was his way:

Her lover by the Adige

She tried her sorrow deep to hide,

For no one knew she was a bride,

But all who saw her knew her sighs.

The game of love on her heart preyed.

But on the wind then came the word

Like swiftly flying, deadly bird:

Her dearest loved one lay interred,

His wound from Romeo incurred

In Verona by the Adige.

Once more her sorrow must be buried

Like the loved one killed by misdeed,

And at this time she must succeed

For none knew the game she played

To maiden it seemed two lay dead,

Though only one in graven bed.

From her horizon tide had bled,

And Romeo, for his crime, had fled,

The heavy price to pay.

Her heartache grew from tragedy.

Her love they hated savagely,

And vowed to slay if they did see

His face nearby the Adige.

PART IV

But mother, seeing pretty maid

Pale as if she saw a shade,

Beckoned her back, then she bade

Her daughter hear the words she said

In Verona by the Adige.

Upon the night of deepest sorrow,

They had new hope for their tomorrow,

For one had come for maiden’s heart, so

She the game of love could play.

He had her father’s loyalty.

Related, he, to royalty.

Though greater in his years than she,

He would keep her loyally

In Verona by the Adige. 

Juliet forced on a smile

Appearing an obedient child,

Though inside her heart was riled

By game of love she was to play.

Then quick to scheming she then ran,

For she could not marry this man.

She must return to husband’s hand,

And so she formed a daring plan

In Verona by the Adige.

She would fake an endless sleep,

Then with Romeo would leap

Away together, swift to keep

The song of love that in hearts plays.

This plan she quickly did enact,

Deadened in face but not in fact.

Her home was then with sorrow wracked,

Though she did not know how her act

Shook the family by the Adige.

To Romeo one ran with truth.

Another beat him on this route,

And told the lie of low repute:

That in a tomb his love did lay.

Then he to broken graveside flew

With a vial of deadly dew,

His wedding oath there to renew,

And bid his hollow life adieu

In Verona by the Adige.

He found her laying with face of white

Though her sweet smile still glowed bright

His sorrow, it appeared, to spite;

His heart the pain once more would flay.

Raising vial in shaking hand, 

His heart beating its strict demand:

To join his love in mansions grand,

The tide at last leaving the land

To fly above the Adige.

To let his water meet her sky,

He grasped the starlight passing by

From Juliet’s once winsome eye

Then fell the empty vial away.

When Juliet awoke to see

Him lying there so peacefully,

Taking up the vial, she

Did cry out, for how could this be?

Her plan so quickly gone astray.

Now he was gone and she was not,

And so without a lucid thought

She found the knife that he had brought

And stabbed her heart with no delay.

Young lovers now lay side by side

United once as man and bride.

The stars their heartbeat did divide,

And joy was there once more denied

In Verona by the Adige.

So children, read this tale and weep

O’er lovers lost in endless sleep,

And in your minds this one thought keep

The game of love kills those that play.

Author's Note: I wrote this poem as a school assignment based on the style of Tennyson's The Lady of Shalott. The distinct rhyme scheme of the poem drew me to it, and I knew I wanted to write in that style. Due to the time crunch on the assignment, I chose to retell the story of Romeo and Juliet rather than create one of my own. I feel like it fit the style of the original poem, and I had a lot of fun working on it! 

Works Referenced:

“Verona.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 9 Dec. 2013, Retrieved from www.britannica.com/place/Verona-Italy. Accessed 18 Feb. 2020.

Shakespeare, William. “Romeo and Juliet.” The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Gramercy Books, 1997.

Tennyson, Alfred. “700. The Lady of Shalott.” English 212: British Literature: 19th Century through the 21st Century Online. Regent U, 2020. PDF File. Accessed 21 Feb. 2020.