Feast Is Over. A Fifty-Word Story for @Jayna

The cover page from a reprint of the British penny dreadful series Varney the Vampire (1845) - Image in the Public Domain

I was glancing over penny dreadfuls and news from Victorian times, trying to find inspiration to write one of my own. Then I remembered I had not written my entry for @jayna’s 50-Word Challenge, which prompt word of the week was “feast.” I decided to write it in verse.

This challenge is also a workshop. Authors provide insights on the making of their stories, backstories and more. It is really an interesting and amusing learning and creative experience. Click here to check it out.

Feast Is Over

The feast of blood has been left behind.

The beast and the teeth, finally hidden.

Of all pleasures in this life forbidden,

mine was certainly one of a kind.

Old age, dear friends, meets even vampires.

(So now I lay down, as if dead...)

stiff and avid in finest attires.

About the Making of This 50-Word Story in Verse

There is not much to say about this. There are two stanzas; verses are rhymed and follow ABBA CDC rhyme scheme. Being the lines of five feet each (iambic pentameter), I had to be careful about word count, so I had to break its iambic rhythm in the last line to make the previous line sound longer than it really was: it is only four feet (iambic tetrameter), as a fifth foot would have made two extra words I could not afford. The result? Well, the rhythm turns slower at the end, which is good, I think, for the story becomes more serious and pathetic towards the end.

The image that inspired me was this picture: an old vampire who has become too weak (or tired of immortality) to go hunting; he is in his coffin, in what seems an eternal retreat.