Does anyone else like this poem? It was written by Queen Elizabeth I! I find it interesting. I like her style. It is refreshing.
"Loving people is like farting in the wind; You don't actually accomplish anything, but you feel better."
~The Great and Powerful Angelia~
The doubt of future foes exiles my present joy,
And wit me warns to shun such snares as threaten mine annoy;
For falsehood now doth flow, and subjects' faith doth ebb,
Which should not be if reason ruled or wisdom weaved the web.
But clouds of joys untried do cloak aspiring minds,
Which turn to rain of late repent by changèd course of winds.
The top of hope supposed the root upreared shall be,
And fruitless all their grafted guile, as shortly ye shall see.
The dazzled eyes with pride, which great ambition blinds,
Shall be unsealed by worthy wights whose foresight falsehood finds.
The daughter of debate that discord aye doth sow
Shall reap no gain where former rule still peace hath taught to know.
No foreign banished wight shall anchor in this port;
Our realm brooks not seditious sects, let them elsewhere resort.
My rusty sword through rest shall first his edge employ
To poll their tops that seek such change or gape for future joy.
Hugh, I know the poem. I was wondering if you liked it or not.
"Loving people is like farting in the wind; You don't actually accomplish anything, but you feel better."
~The Great and Powerful Angelia~
No, sorry, not my cup of tea. I only posted it as a courtesy.
Ah, Ha! Well, thanks anyway for the courtesy.
"Loving people is like farting in the wind; You don't actually accomplish anything, but you feel better."
~The Great and Powerful Angelia~
I'm with Hugh- she's got the meter down, but has had to make incredible grammatical stretches to get there. Example- "And wit me warns to shun such snares as threaten mine annoy;" It took me about 4 readings to get that line figured out.
Of course, she had disadvantages in learning to write poetry- who was going to correct her? "Yes, your Majesty, it's wonderful! What, a knighthood? Thanks so much!" "Uh, your Majesty, I see some problems with the scansion here. What? You're sending me to the Tower?"
pam
Right, a sure way to hear 'Off with 'is 'ead!'
And you are right about the composition problems. She adds 'doth' to get
the right meter too many times. Exiles is accented on the first syllable,
not the second. And many reversals of normal word order to secure
the rhymes, such as upreared shall be and ambition blinds.
Oh, but it was written so very long ago. Surely you could not expect the grammar to be the same. I know, I know.
"Loving people is like farting in the wind; You don't actually accomplish anything, but you feel better."
~The Great and Powerful Angelia~
Try Hank Huit a century earlier also:
[www.emule.com]
I don't. I expect her to use reasonable sentence structure for the era. Compare her grammar to the works of Shakespeare, Wyatt, or any of the other 'sonneteers.'
pam
Clearly, the talent was inherited.
pam
There is a decent attempt at metaphor in most of the couplets. She sounds like a tough old gal in the last...making sure to "pole" the electorate to stay on top.
I like it. The worthy wights are probably her Norman Cousins.
The foreign, banished wights are probably the Catholic minions
of Elizabeth's half sister, Mary.
The war between them did indeed eat up her present joy and leave her gaping for joy in the future-in the person of Phillip II (Catholic Hapsburg).
She never did have a really good personal life.
I like the way she uses caesura to impart meaning.
Thanks and thanks to H. Clary for the actual poem. dlc
I feel some of the difficulty is the language.
She also uses caesura to point up meaning-which is sometimes
difficult as she doesn't provide commas-since the meaning makes
the pause. Personally I had to look up wight and gape-to get
through it. dlc