Wisdom is She

She is calling.
Into the streets
I go.
No answer.

Another cries.
Lured by charm
I go.
Arms await.

Again she calls
I turn away
To find
Only wind.

Returning now
To the diamond
I gaze
Into distortion.

She is calling
Me but now
I stay.
I cannot hear her.

Folly is here.
She is now my Ruin
When I am deaf
To a whisper.


This one needs a lot of explaining. There are two characters calling to the speaker. Each one of them alternates with each verse. It starts with wisdom. The second one that cries is Folly. Wisdom calls the speaker out of Folly’s house and into the streets. And the speaker goes but finds no one. Folly calls the speaker back, so not thinking he has found anything away from Folly he returns. Now wisdom calls again, but this time the speaker only turns rather than leaving- showing his progression away from Wisdom and into Folly. And in returning to Folly, the speaker is not even beckoned. He returns on his own because of what he has found. He has found a diamond which is beautiful to him, but what is behind the diamond is distorted by the cut edges of it. Wisdom continues to call, but the speaker either no longer hears or ignores her, and decides to stay with Folly, who has enticed him. At the end the speaker gives the moral of it all; Folly brings destruction, and Wisdom is always calling, but she must be sought out (or listened for) in order to be heard.

The structure of the verses also degenerates to show the steady decline of the speaker as he chooses Folly. All of the lines in verse 1 and 2 match exactly with their syllables. The last line in verse 4 varies slightly from the one in verse 3. And then verse 6 is completely different than all of the others. Verses 2, 4, and 6 show Folly’s enticement getting stronger with every second. Verses 1, 3, and 5 remain constant to show that wisdom will always be wisdom, and wisdom will never change.