Ode to Cordelia – Shakti Pada Mukhopadhyay

Who loved best?
Was she Goneril, Regan or Cordelia?
Oh Cordelia! Your unspoken love
Lear couldn’t feel.
You didn’t flatter your father,
but fought your wicked sisters
to win back your father’s land.
You refused to color your feelings,
as you were honest and virtuous,
unlike your greedy and cruel sisters.
You were stubborn and proud,
but your greatness wished
if love could replace evil and greed.
 
When fortune had frowned upon Lear,
he sought your forgiveness.
He prayed to sing like birds in the cage
with you and to tell the old tales.
When he had come out with your dead body
in his arms, he praised your voice as soft,
gentle and low, like the shining qualities of a woman.
Not a small place this world is,  
to feel your sacrifice for all the injustice
and evils done upon you.

Shakti Pada Mukhopadhyay, BSC, CAIIB, DIM, DCO, MA (English), was an Executive in a bank. His writings in different social media have been reviewed with enormous applause. Three years back, a lyrical drama written & directed by him was staged with vast popularity. His writings have been published in a number of magazines like, Borderless, Passager, Molecule, Better Than Starbucks, Tatkhanik, The Dribble Drabble Review etc. His writings have also been accepted for publication in the near future in some other magazines like Muse India etc.

Leave a Reply