In my continued observance of National Poetry Month, I present for your amusement and edification a verse by reader Callinectes, which I find wonderfully illustrates a problem that a lot of my students have. Of course, it does so by way of metaphor:
In the land of Pyrûn, an exporter of lead
Ruled by a king (who’s extremely inbred)
Homeland of giants, but the giants are dead
So the towns are beset by a dragon insteadYou can only burn down and eat all a man’s stuff
So many times before he’ll say, “Enough!
It’s time for the dragon to see that we’re tough,
Our knight will extinguish that piteous Puff!”So out rode their champion, in gleaming steel armour
Bearing his shield with its heraldic llama
To be the right hand of the force they call Karma
(At this point it’s safe to assume there’ll be drama)
And drama there is, but you’ll have to click through to read it. Delightful, in my opinion. Enjoy!
I used a similar analogy (actually used dragons as a metaphor!) to talk to my perfectionist students–those who have slain all sorts of smaller dragons, and have had parades in their honor, statues erected, streets named after them… and then have gone after a real dragon, and had no chance of winning.
Their histories pushed them toward something they could not achieve–perfection. Perfection is the dragon that slays all comers. Nobody measures up.
I know what that is like. I have that problem a lot. But in my case, the dragon is a metaphor for big scaly fire lizard.
I’m… not very subtle.
That is a delightful poem. I shall share it with my friends on D-Day, for reasons of personal tradition.
Hitch to mighty beast a wagon
And its little ass be draggin’.