TSOA: A Lament for Patroclus

This poem draws heavily from the themes of love, sacrifice, and grief found in The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. 

The poem encapsulates Achilles' emotions of rage, grief, guilt, and despair in the aftermath of Patroclus' demise.

“We were like gods at the dawning of the world and our joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other.” 

 

 “I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way, his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.” 

 

“We reached for each other, and I thought of how many nights I had lain awake loving him in silence.” 

 

                        ~THE SONG OF ACHILLES, MADELINE MILLER

Torn apart, I stand alone,

Half a soul, with you not my own.

All the glory in the world cannot make up for what I have lost

Your absence, an unfathomable cost.

 

They never let you be famous and happy, how true

All this honour, yet this eternal yearning for you

I dreamed of being a hero, the first to find bliss,

But fate's envy knows no bounds, a cruel nemesis.

 

I promise to avenge, to make them pay,

For every blow, for taking you away.

But in this moment, I'm lost and weak,

More pitiful than the silence I seek.

 

No force can tear us, apart we might remain,

Even in death, our souls will be the same.

You fought for honor, for the Greeks' pride,

But I never realized, the cost of the tide.

 

I promise our ashes, mingled they'll be,

Together in death, for eternity.

But now I'm left, with the greatest grief,

To wander alone, without relief.

 

In the void, I'm forced to reel,

For you were my anchor, the real Achilles' heel.

With you gone, the lyre’s strings weep,

A tune etched in silence, sharp and deep.".