PD30 Day 6: Poets and Parables
September 6, 2008 by J.C. Hewitt
Ending a poem can be difficult. People feel the need to end on a powerful note. They want to sum up the poem. They want everything that lead up to that final line to feel perfect, and think that this is only possible with the perfect final line. That is a lot of pressure to put on a line of poetry. I’m here to tell you to relax. A great final line won’t save a mediocre poem. On the other hand, a line that pushes too hard to be important or clever or instructional just might ruin a poem.
One of the trickier (but very popular) poem endings is the parable ending. A parable is a story that is designed to illustrate a lesson. Parables stretch back to the Bible and beyond. In many cases the subjects of a parable are animals. The story of the mouse that takes the thorn out of a lion’s foot is a parable. The story of the grasshopper that played while the ants prepared for winter is a parable. In much the same way that you can tack “in bed” to the end of a fortune cookie fortune, you can add “and the moral of the story is…” to the last sentence of a parable poem ending. For example:
And the moral of the story is…
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
The last line of a parable ending to a poem feels like the writer is trying to teach you a lesson. The writer wants to wrap up everything that came before and show you that there is a specific point you need to get out of the poem. A parable ending isn’t necessarily bad, but it is tricky. If you are trying to teach people a lesson and you fail, it shows. A parable ending can go wrong in three ways. It can go wrong if:
- The lesson is so obvious that it didn’t need to be said
- The lesson doesn’t feel earned by what came before
- The lesson feels preachy or heavy-handed
The moral of this article is…
Be careful when you try to teach people lessons.
Today’s Poetry Prompt
Write a poetic parable. Feel free to play with the form. Sometimes it is more interesting when the lesson is just a bit absurd.
Related links
- 30 Poems in 30 Days set for September (0.500)
- All About 30 Poems in 30 Days (0.500)
- PD30 Day 1: I Believe in Poetry (0.500)
- PD30 Day 2: Generally Be Specific (0.500)
- PD30 Day 3: A Review of Meter (0.500)
Hi John!
Are we having technical difficulties? The institute site hasn’t “grabbed” this post yet and I’m totally surprised at the lack of comments!
Just checking….
The Kettle that Saved the Pot
The pot calling the kettle black
How dare you
When you are so black yourself
The pot called the kettle black
How could you
When you are black as well
The pot calling the kettle black
Why did the pot
See only the blackness of the kettle
The pot called the kettle black
Why did the pot
See not the black of itself
The kettle was called black
By the pot
Who was black
The kettle was called black
So black
That the pot
Saw not it’s own blackness
The kettle was black
So black
That it saved the pot
From seeing it’s black
Reflected back from the kettle.
I wouldn’t call it technical difficulties so much as an interruption that turned into an all-day distraction. My apologies.
Well said — endings must be earned! Subtlety is wonderful, but not always easy to come by.
I always find it difficult to create an ending I’m satisfied with, both in poetry and prose. I recently hacked off the last few paragraphs of a short story because they were gratuitous explanation of what the character had gone through.
I’m off to the private forum now, since I’ve been quite absent…
Pistachios
There were three pistachios
Irving
Isadora
And Eileen
Irving was the open sort
His shell was spread open
His insides were accessible
His meat was displayed for all to see
So Irving got eaten first
Isadora was less open
There was only the slightest crack
With which to get at her sweet inner life
But someone came along
And split her open
Finding the meat to be just as good
And she was second to be eaten
Eileen had no opening at all
There was no easy way to get at her
She was shut up
Sealed tight
Until one day
Somebody smashed her open with a hammer
Crushing everything
Mixing shell with meat
And eating only a little
Before throwing the rest of Eileen away
You have to be nuts
To read anything into this
A comical end to an interesting poem.
There may be something more in it that you suggest.
But that onl show, I ama likely nuts.
I’m going to cheat this time folks, and post one I wrote a few months ago. Pushed for time at the moment, and this fits the bill and isn’t VERY old.
The Quest
I looked for you all my life,
found you in many places.
I lusted after your beauty,
saw it in many faces.
But each illusion faded
as the world continued turning.
The days drew on to sunset.
I saw the horizon burning.
‘That’s fine,’ I said to The Mother,
‘If that is how it must be.
This journey into sorrow
has held much joy for me.
‘I thank you for the pleasures
and for the lessons learned.’
And I prayed for a spirit companion
while still the horizon burned.
I travelled across the horizon,
plunging into the dark.
There was no ground beneath me.
Ocean and sky turned black.
Sunrise flames on a new world,
a horizon flooded with light.
All names and faces merge as one,
and I sing on my forward flight.
14/5/08
Rosemary Nissen-Wade (aka SnakyPoet)s last blog post..Celebrating Germaine
Dear People
I’m a lot busier than I was when I did this last year, and it’s interfering with projects dearer to my heart, so I have regretfully decided not to post here any more. I’ll keep reading, and I’ll still use the prompts to write poems and will post the results on my poetry blog – but it will be at a much slower pace!
Thanks again to John for making the opportunity available.
Happy writing all!
Rosemary Nissen-Wade (aka SnakyPoet)s last blog post..Celebrating Germaine
I am saddened to hear,
that you’re leaving us, dear.
Please, come back when you can
stay a little past ten.
(ew, that one did not work.)
Well, perhaps you could lurk,
on the forum sometime
and make comments that rhyme.
Thanks for the giggle James, and the kind words!
Rosemary Nissen-Wade (aka SnakyPoet)s last blog post..The Quest
You will be missed Rosemary
I thought writing a parable would be hard, but I ended up really enjoying this. I even put in some rhyme (just to make my life a little harder!).
@ Rosemary
Come back and finish any time
@ Key
Parables can be a lot of fun. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
is hope an infringement of life
where as an inspired metaphore
depleted a reason to grow
is hope so defile in life
that a dream is defered
upon the wish to succeed
is only a dream
is hope so denied
that every time you try
you try, try again
to start all over again
is hope so bitter
that your dreams are over looked
because no one understood you
is hope a silmile to beleive
in all hope, life and maturity
to succeed
is hope the dream you beleived
that dream and it became true
I love the parable about the nuts being crushed! It illustrates the point of the lesson above – the point of the story is so obvious that the ending is funny by trying to laugh at itself.
One small tree was swaying in the wind,
When a small seed fell off,
and planted himself into the soil.
The seed grows into a tree,
that blows through the breeze,
and spreds out more seeds to grow,
to become beautiful trees.
The tree lives a long life,
until one day the trees time comes,
and a man cuts him down into paper.
The paper finds its way to the bank,
Where it’s made into money.
The bank gave the money to lady,
That worked two jobs to earn it,
To care for her son and daughter.
The money went into a savings account,
that paid for her sons college.
Her son grew up to be a doctor
and saved a young girls life.
The girl grew up to be a fire fighter,
that saved a small boys life.
That boy grew up to be president,
and all because of one small seed
that one small tree let go of, on accident.
the narcisisism in color an adiction
quota of being lenched
no one cares to pay attention
no one trust a basket case
and as the color exists
white sheets, black painted faces
a mere reflection of being whiped
nobody’s perfect until caught
it is difficult to speculate risk involved
the general values of this imposition
is relative to the pain