Les Miserables – Poem

The Barricades standing tall
Pianos, tables, cabinets, chairs
Anything you can find, throw it in

Men preparing to fight
Eating as much as they can
Preparing their mind
Preparing their body

A battle never to be forgotten
A battle to change everything
A battle that should not be bound to fail

Putting on armor
Putting on swords
Putting on ammunition

Taking in courage
Taking in blessings
Taking in bullets

A battle filled with spies
A battle filled with ruthlessness
A battle between freedom and the corrupt

Men laying there
Pale faces staring into the stars
Blood flowing in rivers
From their breathless bodies

Everything they found, thrown in
Pianos, tables, cabinets, chairs
The Barricades falling fast

I tried to make a creative piece out of something unusual. I had watched the movie, Les Miserables for LA and really enjoyed it. During the work period, I couldn’t think about much and the only thing that came to mind was the movie. So I decided to write a poem about the movie. While writing the poem I somehow wanted this piece to be special and so I thought about making the first and second part of the poem opposites. For example, the first line starts off with “The Barricades standing tall” and then I ended the poem with “The Barricades falling fast”; complete opposites. Along the poem, each stanza had an opposite. This poem just describes how in the movie the French elites have all the power and all the monarchs are going corrupt. So a few rebellions start a French Revolution in hopes to gain freedom for all of France. They do this by building many barricades along the city, protesting and fighting the French army, but eventually all the people who opposed lose and die. The barricades had also played a major symbolism in the movie, such as freedom, safety, protesting and basically a revolution; a new start. The poem starts off, with a highly fortified barricade and the men behind the barricade preparing for the fight with the French Army. And then the poem slowly transitions into the loss of fight for the Revolution side. In the end, there are many men lying there dead before the fallen barricade.

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