Art thou interested in my story? My eternal glory, lasting 1000’s of years filled with hatred, sorrow and death seeing my best friend out his last breath Uruk, where it all began, a king ruled over who were ⅔ God and ⅓ Man I, that king, cheer by own desire Before every bondage, kindled there my fire For there my people kneeled to the divine and aroused the need for retribution thereupon came that sign Resulting Shamhat in to the act of prostitution She brought to me my new mate Who were called upon me, to put me straight A hirsute man, Enkidu was his name Together we stirred trouble, yet he took the blame The gods decided he had to come to an end I suffer 2 4/7, for I lost my best friend And because I refused to face death’s brutality I embarked on a quest for immortality” Rap
Now, this is a story all about how My life got flipped-turned upside down And I'd like to take a minute Just get right stuck I'll tell you bout when I was the king of a town called Ur-Uk
In Mesopotamia born and raised In the bedroom was where I spent most of my days Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool And all deflowering women because it’s my rule, *what*
When a couple of guys who were up to no good Started making trouble in my neighborhood They prayed to the gods, and the gods got mad they said *''we’re creating you a friend that you never had”'*
I fooled around with him day after day we followed our path and there we had to slay The bull of heaven and the swine of the woods The gods got mad,*again*, and said enkidu didn’t belong in my hood
God’s disease, yo this is bad Dying without glory and without class Is this how dead people be living like? *Hmmmmm* I thought this isn’t alright.
But wait, I hear there’s Utnapishtim ,and all that Is that where the secret for immortality at? I’d like think so I might get some luck I hope they're prepared for the King of Ur-Uk
Well, my quest started and when I went out I passed lions and scorpios and I yelled my name out I ain't trying to get killed yet I just got here I sprang with the quickness like lightening, disappeared
I called Utnaps help and when it came near His lifestory was fresh and his advice was clear If anything I could say that my life didn’t suck So i thought ‘Nah, forget it’- “Yo homes to Ur-Uk’
I know now that death is unavoidable And I yelled to myself “Enjoy every moment” I went back to my kingdom I was thankfully struck with the secret of life, I was the king of Ur-Uk
Analysis
My poem / rap came to existence as a result of a mistake. I started writing my poem and realised that I wasn’t following the instructions to write a “modern-day” poem. Then a light bulb appeared over my head, and I thought it to be a good idea to resume with a modern-day rap. I didn’t want to erase the poem I’ve been working on for a while too, so this was the ideal solution.
In my poem and rap I mostly used rhyme, because I find making poems easier if I have something to work with - a word that needs to rhyme with another. Historically, in a time before people could read and write, the rhythm and rhyme helped people remember a story, thus improving the effectiveness of my poem/rap. In my rap there’s also hyperbole and a simile which says “I sprang with the quickness like lightening”, for this gives the audience a better understanding about what/how “I” did something and what that “what/how” resembles.
I made pretty straightforward allusions to the meaning of Gilgamesh. In my poem they are quite subtle, but with my rap I basically end with the meaning. So, in my poem I mention how Gilgamesh is in search for immortality, but because I didn’t “finish” the poem I didn’t mention yet how death is inevitable, but I did in my rap. I also mentioned how Gilgamesh’ glory is within his story which lasted 1000’s of years, therefore a certain immortality does exist.
I included the background by mention where and when Gilgamesh lived, how he ruled over his kingdom - how he used his people, for example by taking away the virginity of women before their husband may, which I assume means that they had to stay pure until after marriage. Also I mentioned how the society is very religious for the people pray to the gods whenever they’re not pleased with what’s happening. Also, in my poem I mention how Shamhat is put into the act of prostitution also shows how women were treated in their society - as sex slaves basically.
I didn’t make many references to it, yet immortality and religion itself are fiction already. So, that’s where I drew the line between fiction and reality, for it’s a fact that this is an actual story and that Gilgamesh existed as the King of Uruk, Ancient Mesopotamia - which also existed. And even though me considering immortality and religion to be fiction, it could’ve existed at that time, therefore to be reality.