The Sun King Comes to America
A Rondeau
The Sun King’s here, stiff with a smile,
robes of brocade, gold tongue of guile.
Dappled mist melts, senses take flight.
Owl is proved wrong and buzzard right,
the Sun King’s here.
His rays rain over mile on mile,
burning the fair, shading the vile;
angels' despair, gamblers' delight,
with all our gold to spend tonight,
the Sun King’s here.
Darkness slaps back light’s denial.
Truth keeps her mouth shut at the trial.
Gaia bleeds out, war-weak and white,
drained by a blindworm parasite.
Drinking nectar, excreting bile,
the Sun King’s here.
June 2011
Posted for Friday Poetically at the inimitable OneStopPoetry
Friday Poetically is hosted by Brian Miller, who I hope will forgive me for taking liberties with his prompt, which was to "write a poem about the sun, heat or use it as a metaphor..."
The rondeau form is explained here at wikipedia
Louis XIV… known as the Sun King was an absolute monarch, King of France from 1643 to 1715(72 years.) You can find out a bit more about him at his wikipedia entry if interested. I have chosen to employ him here in a symbolic aspect.
Gaea (Gaia)~the ancient Greek goddess of the earth, mother of the Titans.
Image: Louis XIV as Apollo, 1653, artist not named, courtesy of wikimedia commons
oh you are good...as are your words...fairly vivid particularly around the drained our corpse of the earth...yikes....your sun king is a pretty vicious fellow...
ReplyDelete"Owl is proved wrong and buzzard right"
ReplyDeleteBrilliant line.
So wonderfully clever. One of my favorite forms and how you wove the images together.
ReplyDeleteGaia is my favorite! I mean, she's mom to the Titans. I bet she gets good Christmas presents!
ReplyDeleteVery thought-provoking post - I like it a lot!
Dear Hedgewitch: The Sun King may have gotten more than he bargained for; flying way too close to the sun; he was bound to get burned by life or his own showy peacock feathers. The allegorical harkens back to the literature of the day;
ReplyDeleteTruth keeps her mouth shut at the trial.
Truth dare not speak her name; Absolute-ly not!
Great poem!
The Sun King. You always amaze me the angles you create from. You are never boring or predictable,besides being very talented... ENJOYED!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteHe would fit right in in Washington, would he not?
ReplyDeleteCautiously extracted words, poured down into a mesmerizing piece. 'Drinking nectar, excreting bile' wow!
ReplyDeleteLovely use of a French form with a French King as a metaphor for the abuse of power over the natural
ReplyDeleteThe Sun King is here, everything is dried out, the forests are on fire, all for his delight. the appearance of the Rain Got would be welcome! The south is having a heat wave, and he is called the Sun King!
ReplyDeleteloved your couplets. and great story told of a ruler bleeding out his kingdom :)
ReplyDeleteMonty / bummy
Made me think of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French "socialist" head of the IMF whose sense of privilege is being widely abused by men in power these days, Governator to Weiner to John Edwards. Gold and clout are the real Viagra an aging dude's sagging ego. So many great pairings in this poem -- "owl is proved wrong and buzzards right" / "angels' despair, gamblers' delight". Such an absolute contradiction, this brilliant regnum of all things dark. Appearances are deceiving, eh? "Drinking nektar, excreting bile." Four burning chevrons for this gold-plated lingam of devil poop. -- Brendan
ReplyDeleteMany thanks all for your kind words for my efforts to play Friday Poetically with you all. Much appreciated.
ReplyDelete@ Annell It's just starting here, but we're supposed to get our first 100 degree day this week. I hate it.
@FB; O yes, and Wall Street. Golden plumes, peacock feathers, high heels and all.
@Brendan: Devil poop indeed--we're swimming in it.I really wanted to work in something on Gold-man Sacks, but eight syllables per line and only two rhymes made it more work than I was willing to invest--maybe some other time. ;-)
I think Versailles was built for and by him, right? Quite the dude, had such a divine right, and all. Probably a divine pain in the ass was he, excreting bile for sure.
ReplyDeleteNice dresser, tho! :)
Sorry I was MIA lately -- been getting new songs "studio-ready' but the bulk of my songwork is done for a little while now, whoooohoooo.
xoxo
Glad to see you stop by, Jannie--gratz on getting everything together musically and good luck with it.
ReplyDelete