From valley deep to mountain high went she
God’s might she bringeth unto thee
The people writhed and wept and suffered
But she knew no reason was there to flee
A woman’s right hand to deliver them
Adorned with precious metals and shining gem
But the key was her faith within
The Most High knew she was right to send
God answered her each and every prayer
The foolish king, for her, drew up a chair
Smitten with lust and drunken pride
He drifted off, and she vanquished him there
The king of wrath lay still with sloth
Wrapped lazily in rich, red cloth
Blessed be her righteous deed
The light that smote the heedless moth
No matter the blood, the loss, the slaughter
God proclaimed her as His daughter
For such lustful, foolish, prideful heathens
Must meet their ends when come deep water
When writing this poem, I focused on telling the story depicted in the painting, which is Judith Slaying Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi. This painting is based off of the Book of Judith in the Bible. I tried alluding to the larger abhorrent nature of men at large to touch on the likely perspective of the artist, whom many think was inspired to paint this particular figure and story after she was tragically raped and had a public trial which led to the exile of the man who raped her a few years prior to creating this painting. I tried to generalize the story in an attempt to show how she may have related it to her own life. I also tried to underscore the impressiveness of Judith successfully killing Holofernes as a woman, which I tried to accomplish by using pronouns liberally. Stylistically, I tried to employ the use of Biblical language with words such as lust, greed, wrath, deliver, prayer, etc. Technically, I used an AABA rhyme scheme and read the poem out loud frequently while reading to maintain a rhythm and flow to its pacing.
I did not use generative AI to create this poem