No light is not accompanied 

by shadows, 

no smile without a single tear, 

no sweet sugar without 

the bitter black pill, 

there is no death without any life. 

Night must always follow day, 

day must always follow night, 

we cannot see the black 

until we have seen the white. 

The life-giving sun always leaves 

wailing ghosts in its wake, 

the cold moon caresses the lives 

below and sends them on their way. 

The rotten, stinking things have 

a spark of light alive, 

and even the perfect beings have dark 

secrets buried inside. 

Black and white so tightly intertwined, 

that if you were to take one away, 

there'd be nothing left behind.

In English, we're analyzing poetry and making connections. The poem I chose is called "Tichborne's Elegy," written by a man in his last hours before he was executed for plotting to kill Queen Elizabeth 1. Read it here.