The Ballad of Dark and Light

A ballad entry to the Dark Dreamscape Poetry Challenge, Week 3

The Ballad of Dark and Light


Twin sisters do not always come
Alike in every way
They sometimes act as mirror-panes
One night, the other day.

         Refrain:
         Of yin and yang we often sing
         As pleasure counters pain-oh
         For gladness yet may sorrow bring
         Our lives are cast in twain-oh!

Bellona was a winsome babe
No virtue did she lack;
Yet every year she grew more wild
Our dark Bellona Black.

Celestia, she was troublesome
And would not sleep at night;
Yet every day her goodness grew
Our sweet Celestia White.

Celestia was a gentle girl
Who would not hurt a fly;
Bellona caught and tortured them
And pulled their wings awry.

         Refrain

Celestia made this troubled world
A nicer place to play--
She gathered up our cares and woes
And packed them all away.

Bellona found the trouble-case
In which our cares were furled
She opened it and let them out
All loose upon the world.

For every good you find in life
There is an evil twin
The greatest wickedness of man
Is letting evil win.

         Refrain

The Ballad ▶︎

A short narrative poem with stanzas of two or four lines and usually a refrain. The story of a ballad can originate from a wide range of subject matter but most frequently deals with folk-lore or popular legends. They are written in straight-forward verse, seldom with detail, but always with graphic simplicity and force. Most ballads are suitable for singing and, while sometimes varied in practice, are generally written in ballad meter, i.e., alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, with the last words of the second and fourth lines rhyming.
http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/ballad.html