|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Historical Thoughts
| Article
# : |
19179 |
|
|
Section : |
THE ARTS
|
| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1991 |
458 Words |
| Author
: |
John Greening
John Greening is a widely published poet residing in
Huntingdon, England. |
Sestina for the Six Wives
My brother's wife, but only I loved Catherine:
No woman did I ever trouble more
To be the mother of my kingdom's heir,
To consummate my first, my last, desire.
She failed; and still I travel to her, farther
Than dreams can ride, into her castle blackness.
While black-eyed, six-fingered Anne, all blackness--
But yellow for the funeral--round Catherine
Danced, and so miscarried; leaving me father
To no son, but to the death of More and more.
The French blade of a sonneteer's desire
Took off the goggle-eyed brunette; which done, ere
I had half composed a twisting hybrid air
And walked the paths of polyphonic blackness,
I found in fresh green leaves my heart's desire.
Since neither the Marquess Anna, nor Catherine
Of Aragon would give, let plain Jane Seymour
Be the mother, and I at last the father
To the name of his father's mother's father,
King Edward. Fog clears, sun explodes the air.
Queen Jane lies back exposed on Childbed Moor
Bleeding into her last puerperal blackness.
And I must seek a wife: another Catherine.
An Ann. But all I find when I desire
Are dreams that buck, a face that cleaves desire,
A Flanders nightmare come to lure me farther
From my senses: until a fifth, a Catherine
Comes pumping, down my dropsied, ulcered skin, air
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
