PoemPart "The Rose That Grew from Concrete"
The Eternal Lament
Not a perfectionist, yet searching for perfection: “The Eternal Lament” portrays a speaker who, in the end, would do it all again.
- Book
- The Rose That Grew from Concrete (1999)
- Part
- The Rose That Grew from Concrete
- Original text
- not reproduced (copyright); see the book
Three stanzas of four lines each, no dedication: The Eternal Lament is a brief self-portrait full of restlessness. The poem appears in the first section of the book The Rose That Grew from Concrete, which, like the volume itself, is titled “The Rose That Grew from Concrete”.
Not a Perfectionist, but Searching for Perfection
The first stanza names the goal: from his mind to the depths of his soul, the speaker yearns to achieve all of his goals. His free time will be spent lamenting the people he misses. This explains the title: the “eternal lament” is the flip side of a life constantly pressing forward.
The second stanza builds on two contradictions: he is not a perfectionist, yet seeks perfection; he is no great romantic, yet yearns for affection. The third stanza revolves around talent: his mind will forever find new ways to put his abilities to use. And when everything is done, no matter where he has been, he will want to do it all again.
Achieving More in 25 Years Than Others in Three Lifetimes
No date is documented. According to the preface by Afeni Shakur, the poems were written between 1989 and 1991. In her introduction, Leila Steinberg describes a young man who immediately took the lead in her writing circle and whose achievements in 25 years surpassed what others accomplish in three lifetimes. The Eternal Lament reads like the inside view of this drive.
In the book, the poem belongs to a group of self-portraits along with In the Depths of Solitude, If I Fail, and What Is It That I Search 4. What they share is a speaker who is never satisfied with what has been achieved.
More on the book in the introduction.