By Hayley Norman
A Blackout Poem from “The Day is Done” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight
I see the lights of the village
Gleam through the rain and noise
And a feeling of sadness comes o’er me
That my soul cannot resist;
A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain
Come, read to me some poem,
Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling,
And banish the thoughts of day.
Not from grand old masters,
Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridors of Time.
For, like strains of martial music,
Their mighty thoughts suggest
Life’s endless toil and endeavor;
And to-night I long for rest.
Read from some humbler poet,
Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
Or tears from the eyelids start;
Who, through long days of labor,
And nights devoid of ease,
Still heard in his soul the music
Of wonderful melodies.
Such songs have power to quiet
The restless pulse of care,
And come like the benediction
That follows after prayer
Then read from the treasured volume
The poem of thy choice,
And lend to the rhyme of the poet
The beauty of thy voice.
And the nights shall be filled with music,
And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.
What is Blackout Poetry?
Blackout poetry is a form of found poetry. This style of writing includes various ways in which authors take other writers’ words and rework them into their own verse. Unlike other forms of found poetry, this form requires a physical text to work off of. This could be a newspaper article, or it could be a page from a novel, another poem, a letter, a diary entry, or any other written work that one can physically mark on.
Source: https://poemanalysis.com/genre/blackout-poetry/
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