Poem Arising

[poliphilo]

                                    CIVIL WAR

 

                                    When I was painting my English Civil War

                                    Miniatures I was changing sides

                                    On an hourly basis.

 

                                                                  New Model Army-

                                    That's a name to roll off the tongue.

                                    I liked the lobster-tail helmets they wore

                                    And their politics.

 

                                                                 But theology

                                    Removed me into the Royalist camp.

                                    I liked a smoky liturgy

                                    And a maypole dance.

 

                                                                        All civil wars

                                    Are shite- the neighbours shot in the back field,

                                    Buried beside their blighted crops-

                                    And they always last such a very long time,

                                    The troops regrouping, the arguments

                                    Mutating.

                                                  

                                                    A republican

                                    And a pagan- that is what I am

                                    And I've never known where to stand when Charles

                                    Steps into the rough-tongued January morning.

Comments

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

I do agree! I've always found it hard to work out where I would have sat on that debate. I expect I would have despised the debauchery of court, and gone for the puritans, because of their politics and the end of the Divine Right of Kings. But when Cromwell banned Christmas I would like to think I would sneakily rebel and head off for the smoky liturgy and the maypole dance. I like a nice bit of ritual, me.

Another gem of a poem. I might have a go at a civil war poem myself, next. I need to understand the rules of blank and free verse though, and they didn't teach me that in Biochemistry.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's hard isn't it? I imagine all of us (by now) must have ancestors from both sides.

The rules of free verse are easy- there aren't any. It's all about the tune the words make in your head. If it's a good tune then it's likely to be decent free verse.

Actually free verse is very difficult to get right. I mainly write in unrhymed iambic pentameter- Shakespeare's metre- with a bit of variation thrown in for zest.

Civil War

[bazalgette.livejournal.com]

This one lasted a long time, it really ended at Yorktown.

General Monk had the right idea, compromise with a constitutional monarchy, via a king in favour of religious tollerence and actresses (and by the way pickng up a peerage and a nice estate!!!).

Re: Civil War

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

"It really ended at Yorktown"- Hmm- I believe you're right.

I agree about the Restoration too. I regret the loss of the Republic but- well- what happened was probably the best possible compromise solution.

[margaretarts.livejournal.com]

Great. I like the cold terror of the last stanza.

Made me think of my one trip to the Tower of London (long time ago), to that tiny stone upper-story cell where the unfortunate royals had to wait out their time before being publicly killed.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

The Tower of London is a terrible place. It's our equivalent of the Lubinaka or Gestapo HQ.