Carl Halling Poet Free verse

Who Had He Not Sought Such Fatal Lethe

The playwright was most effective
As the dramatic illuminator
Of his own tristful destiny
As well as those of his kinfolk.
And of the two plays that treat
Of the tragic Tyrones
One features James,
His wistful pheere Mary,
And his two troubled offspring
                                                              
A quartette of characters
Based respectively
Upon O'Neill's father James,
His mother Ella,
O'Neill himself,
And his elder brother, Jamie
Who had he not sought 
Such fatal Lethe 
Might have evolved into 
A great actor like his father,
Or a writer like his brother,
Such was the luminous 
Brilliance of his early promise.

How richly blessed he'd been 
At birth with charm and intellect. 
While part of the 
Minim Department 
Of Notre Dame University,
He was a favoured prince 
Destined for a future 
As a Catholic gentleman 
Of exquisite breeding 
And learning; and then 
A prize-winning scholar 
At Fordham, from which 
He came to be expelled
For a foolish indiscretion.
                                                              
While the other is an account
Of poor Jim Tyrone's 
Last attempt at securing
Some kind of earthly felicity,
Through his love for Josie, a
Woman with a heart as vast 
As the sorrows of his life,
A Moon for the Misbegotten.

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