(Author's note: a college had the title up as a prompt for an essay to gain admission, but I thought it would be more fun as a poem!)

 

Every person knows how I sound,

For that sound is written upon each

And every lip. Forerunners began to pound

Out a few sounds to help to speak

Their needs and wants. Profound!

 

That’s how I began, I was labored forth

By ancient lips, sloughing out of

Ignorance into light. The words that I sort

Raised cities, kings, and tyrants to power.

On turn of History's page, you see such force!

 

This entire account is only devoid of one piece:

The very sound

That I

Resound!

 

Me! My sound makes magnificent

A word, a book, a tomb to speak and hear!

My sound decorates monikers old and recent!

History is marked by my mighty sound.

Though my mark is oft overlooked, but forever resonant.

 

The letter “M”