Descriptive, prescriptive scribe Charles Dickens
Finest purveyor of prose to appeal en masse
Wrote soulful poignant powerful, yet painful stories
Of England's perpetuation of hierarchical class
Upper, middle, lower, working, under classes,
The abject, desperate, those hidden without names
Writhing in squalour, the darkness hiding all blame
He observed and understood from stark raw experience
After his family suffered a financial fall from grace
By his father's unfortunate business instability
Charles stripped abruptly from his middle class's cheery embrace
Without warning or worldly experience to face
Banishment to a pungent smelling blacking factory
Filled with fumes and choking smut,
Hidden from fresh air, sunlight
Many hours of every horror filled day
Sequestored from his family at the tender age of nine
Forced to take on the mantle of breadwinner
In a shocking untimely grueling way
Carved into his heart an empathy for all unfortunates
Not born of privilege and money to sway
Charles later dealt with his terrible predicaments
Penning words from his sensitive mind and soul
Prolific, intense, full of empathy, regrets and blame
For society's lost flocks, shepherdless,
Tarred with ill deserved shame
Blaming the avarice of those who did not see,
Much less, even acknowledge or yet ever care
Lending moral licence among his many books
Inciting all underdogs to forge ahead fearlessly
Never letting life's demands knock you down
Yet rise as a phoenix, as truth shall bring all to yield
Whether it be soon or countless moons away
His enlightening guiding hand that penned
Such an account of his times and ways
Yet unsurprisingly we find, still upon reading his lines,
Society still falters to find fairness to mend
To find solutions still, whereby the lowly can transcend
The preying of the great and glorious
On the belittled that can never find their feet
Penalised beyond reason to take from the hand
That feeds them, but also to beat
If eloquent Dickens were alive this very day
He would no doubt sigh sorrowfully,
shaking his head and say
Ahhhh....how much the world itself has changed
Yet people, their reasoning, their raison d'etre
Indelibly carved in tombstone grey
Sadly the recurring problems baffle and continue to this day
Yet gratefully Dickens works are consigned to posterity - Gripping stories for future generations to grasp His satirical, lyrical, theatrical comical interpretations Of what it is to be human and suffer as we do In which ever times we live, yet still striving to progress Such prevalent traits and sensibilities..... Forever present constantly looming...... Yet Dickens instills inspiration to forge a path ahead To recognize the poor, old, sick, weak and lonely Giving them respite, food and shelter to deter their pain, before death
