A Pair of Potter Poems (Picked by Peter Piper?)

Here are a couple of poems.  Sonnets again.  The schtick here is that they concern a pair of Harry Potter characters.  It should be trivial to figure out who they are (although it might require a dictionary for our younger readers).

(I admit I felt compelled to put these here so that the three of you coming from Ash's poetry blog don't feel like you got put on a bus to Hoboken, Nerd Jersey.)

emerge

The boy stepped forth and took his place beneath
the brim.  A minute passed, now two, then three,
within which time the shades of bravery
and justice armed their forces to the teeth.
Though all saw brav'ry take the palm and wreath,
it lay in waiting, seeming idly:
At length, his courage glowed for one to see,
demure, as though he'd drawn it from its sheath.
It wavered, unaccustomed to the light;
it felt about, uncertain of its tread.
Till blunt necessity called out its right,
to cleave the foul ophidian at its head.
Oh say! where night left off and day began,
to slumber off a boy and wake a man.


unreadable

He stands, a glower made inscrutable,
ambiguous.  He wreaths his honest thoughts
in coronets of random noise, in knots
of truths both blank and indisputable.
The swollen ranks, beneath his gaze, bear gloom.
Their dully thronging stride stamps out the time
left to his bitter charge, and neither rhyme
nor reason can forestall his chosen doom.
Though he may carp or cavil over weights
none else has will or wherewithal to bear,
that memory, besmirched, of onetime mates
does focus his poor genius in its glare.
So pity not the fool who plays the lie--
once! twice! now thrice!--to gamble and to die.

Copyright © 2011 Brian Tung