Plague Pit Doloroso

Macabre plague pit like a womb,
Skeletons carefully laid in rows:
Dirt rained down on rotting flesh,
There were no flowers
And no tomb.

Mass burial, only priests believed that souls were saved,
A village of plague victims all buried in a huge grave.
When the dying were taken to a monastery hospital,
Did they understand what was happening to them at all?

Mass burial, covered in boils,
Mass burial, under the soil,
So many died, but they were still given last rites.

Mass burial and their deaths took just three to five days,
For hundreds of years bones below a green field where sheep graze.
They dug up the turf and discovered the sad history
Of families deep in the grounds of a Lincolnshire abbey.

Mass burial, covered in boils,
Mass burial, under the soil,
So many died, but they were still given last rites.

Kim M. Russell, 2016

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Meeting the Bar – Make Music of Those Words

Victoria is the host for Meeting the Bar this evening and has told us that, having spent some of her growing-up years with her grandmother, a concert pianist and organist, and spending hours under the grand piano, listening to her play, the DNA of music got into her system. She also says that music has helped her develop rhythmic intelligence so that, when she writes, there is a subconscious attention to rhythm and pace of a poem, which also influences sound, line break and cadence. 

She has asked us to write a poem that incorporates elements of music – on any topic, including music – but what will come through is a recognition of the influence of music. We may even want to put on a song-writer persona and use a familiar melody as a basis for our poems.

My favourite grunge band of all time, beside Soundgarden, is Alice in Chains and when Layne Staley died he left us the strains of his amazing voice, so when I read about the discovery of a ‘plague pit’ containing 48 skeletons at Thornton Abbey in Lincolnshire in the UK, their song, ‘Down in a Hole’ came to mind. I have tried to keep the rhythm and dolorous tone of the song in my poem, while writing about the mass grave of villagers who fell victim to the Black Plague, including 27 children.

31 thoughts on “Plague Pit Doloroso”

  2. A dirge for sure; loved the music video, Interesting how our musical favorites integrate themselves int the grit & sinew of our days; your piece is impressive, rocking the prompt.

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    1. That was unusual during the plague years. It was because they had been tended in a monastery. I’ve been trying to imagine how it must have been for them – and did the priests survive?

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  8. Wow you took it to grunge, impressive… my favorite grunge bands were Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana… The the pictures of the the victims in boils (i actually remember scanning my legs for boils as a kid after reading about it). I can imagine this being sung… The world is vampire …

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    1. Whereabouts are you in Sussex, Misky? My grandfather was a Sayers born and bred in Sussex. My best friend still lives there – she moved from Brighton to Bexhill.

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      2. Ah! I haven’t been any where near Crawley for a long time. Now my daughter has moved from Clapham to Guildford I can see myself becoming a stranger to London too. I hope to visit Bexhill again in the spring.

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      3. I’m a few blocks away from the old Norman church in Worth. The area is called Maidenbower. We moved here about 20-odd-years ago from Godstone in Surrey. Lived in London off and on, but mostly down south where trains never run…

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