Dream of Constantine

What? No responses :-( I'm toying with style elements and you fine guys and gals are my guinea pigs! Let me have it!

As a Mercurial Virgo, I am highly insulted. Just kidding. I might suggest making the two lines "pass the day my caged canary/and I will not stop to chatter" into a stanza. Now I sing, "It's Istanbul not Constantinople" but I digress, yet again. It's a strong piece.

For you Cav... there is music...

The overral flow is good. If I recall correctly...Constantine the great was the war leader that had the ambition to defeat the Persian army? All I can gather is that this is about the battlefields in his wake. There are a lot of seemingly random references that are metaphors which I don't get. I like the flow and rhyme at the dream of Constantine lines.

Constantine was the first Roman emperor to embrace Christianity, and he had some hard times there: http://www.roman-emperors.org/conniei.htm

Good!!! Constantine was as Cav says. Now, place the the rest of the poem in that context. I am focused here on war, or war-like imagry. Cav has identified the significance of Constantine and his Roman empire. What is happening in the modern world that resembles Constantinian Rome?

I refuse to answer. I want stuh to address the question.

Anyone else?

Do I need to pipe in on Constantine's political motivations for conversion? Come on smart folks, pipe in!

Most mercurial...

Just chiming in.

:-)

I wanted to compliment you for single-handedly breathing life into the Original Writing forum. So, congrats! I haven't seen this much activity here since I joined A2K a couple of years ago.

Actually, to be more accurate, I haven't seen this much activity in this forum EVER.

It is a labor of love :-)

The audience is speechless, awaiting you to drive your most learned stake through this one. Bring it home Cav!

At The Battle of Milvian Bridge, Constantine and his army had a decisive victory over their rivals which effectively established Constantine as sole ruler of the Western half of the Empire. It is said that on the march to Rome, they witnessed a fiery cross in the sky with the inscription "by this sign you shall be victor." That night, Christ appeared to Constantine in a dream and instructed him to add the symbol of the cross to the shields and the battle standards of his army. Constantine maintained that was victory was due to the god of the Christians. Constantine continued to be plagued by divisions in the Church, and by 'pagan' tribes in the Empire. Somehow, our leader of the Western Empire seems to have similar problems, and a similar motivation for waging expansionist holy war in the middle east. That's my take on it anyway.

History repeating itself, perhaps?

That was my first thought.