An Ode to Oroonoko

I

So blesséd is he, young Oroonoko
standing tall, gallant, and handsome;
thrilling as a thirty year old Thoreau
ready to fight whatever may come,
he stood his ground until deceived by a bro.

The lamenting beats of the bongo drum
can still be heard in Sierra Leone
asking where Oroonoko had gone.

Now a slave in a south temperate zone,
taken prisoner, made a courtier,
there he was in Surinam living on his own.

While walking along a wooded chantier.
he found Imoinda, his first amour
to which he cried, “Nous sommes immortalisé!”
She was lost before and now found once more,
And now their love was fortified hardcore.

II

Drawing the ire of the king and now
the ire of the English deputy,
the two lovers decided to take a vow.

Marriage they believed to be the mighty,
taking their love to a higher point,
this is when their marriage turned deadly.

Oroonoko was disgraced at gunpoint,
in front of owners of slaves
by the English deputy who wanted to make a point.

III

Drawing on this experience
he decided that no one could be trusted,
and so honorable Oroonoko prepared to face death with great grievance.

Imoinda, his love, offered her life to him, which he granted
and so she died, with a smile on her face,
leaving him with nothing to live for, facing death undaunted.
He was tied up and left for Death’s embrace
whipped and dismembered, all without a cry
he began preparing to leave this forsaken place.

O Brave Oroonoko, good bye, goodbye
your legend still lives on as time passes by.