King of Elephants

Image: Indra riding Airavata
{link to: http://www.indianminiaturepaintings.co.uk/Marwar_Indra-Airavata_000610.html}

I love elephants. If you go into my room, you will see about 10 elephants; pictures, candles, and figurines. And so when we were told to write a poem about our own epic story or re-tell a myth, I decided to do a little bit of research on elephants. I found an interesting myth on the elephant from the Hindu religion. One very specific elephant is Airavata, the king of the elephants, believed to control the rain and to fly. He was completely white! He carried the god of weather and war, Indra, into battle to fight, Vritra, a serpent or dragon blocking the rivers. To defeat Vritra, Airavata reached his trunks (he had seven trunks and four tusks) into the water and sprayed the water to the clouds which killed Vritra (or stopped the drought). It is believed that Airavata stood in front of Indra's palace. I thought this was a pretty neat story. I hope you enjoy my sonnet!


King of Elephants


The melody of sacred hymns christened

My royal birth from the broken egg shells.

Whiter than a great waterfall glistens,

Pure and spotless, respected and special.



Airavata, they call me. King of the

Elephants – power of the rain and clouds.

Conveyor of the king of gods, Indra.

Mighty and battleworn, I trumpet loud!



Slipping my trunks into fathoms below

Sucking and guzzling and filling up full

‘Til about to burst, the water explodes

Reaching the skies, feeling gravity’s pull.



The enemy defeated, all’s restored,

To the palace, fly, there I stand adored.


I have to be honest. When we first got the assignment, I definitely misunderstood. I found a topic and wrote a super cute sonnet (also about elephants and also about a myth, but in a different context - ask me about it and I'll whip it out and read it to you). I shared it with lots of people because I was so proud! Of course, my bubble was burst when I realized I didn't quite follow the rules of the assignment. And so I wrote this one (let's hope I did it right!). I have now written 3 sonnets in 2 days. They may not be amazing or well-written, but that's still pretty amazing for someone who has never written a sonnet before! I think I actually enjoy writing sonnets...Cool!