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Friday, 5 June 2020

A FAIRY STORY


A FAIRY STORY


By Peter Woodgate

In times of old when knights were bold
There is a story I’ve been told
About a maiden slim and fair
With ruby lips and golden hair.

She’d sit all day incarcerated
Within her room and so frustrated
Her father did not trust her virtue
Outside the palace there formed a large queue
Of red-blooded males from all walks of life
And eager to make the fair maiden their wife.

But the king didn’t want any Tom Dick or Harry
Wooing his daughter, he was in no hurry
To give her away in an ordinary marriage
And see her depart by horse and carriage.
He wanted a knight, dashing and bold
To carry her over the castle threshold.

So he sent his servants to search the land
And bring him the names of knights brave and grand.
But although they searched the whole land through
The names of such knights were incredibly few
In fact after years of searching, it’s true,
The servants brought news and names of but two.

One was a youth both handsome and tall
Who went by the name of Sir Busterball,
The other was shorter but built like a tank
And known through the land as Mighty Cruickshank.
Both were fearless with passion and pride
And each had good men who rode by their side.

The king got the news and summoned each knight
To appear at the court in order to fight.
They would duel to the death for the hand of his daughter
Each one did not want to but knew that they oughta.


The day of the tournament arrived with great joy
To those who would watch them try to destroy
The life of the other, but was for good cause
And into the arena, they rode and did pause.

The horses they snorted, the crowds they did sing
as each gallant knight saluted the king.
They lifted their visors in chivalrous style,
Gazed at each other, broke into a smile,
They looked at the king, his daughter, her mother
Then, arms interlocked, they rode off together.

Copyright Peter Woodgate

5 comments:

  1. Not sure I totally understand this but as it is a fairy tale maybe I'm not meant to.

    Is there a name for poems that are written sometimes with four lines and sometimes with six?

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    1. Hi Janet. Yes, there is a word for it, actually two,"Poetic Licence". Groups of lines (stanza's) are what para's are to prose which can,of course, be of different lengths. Because I chose "rhyming couplets any stanza within the poem would consist of an even number of lines but could consisted of anything from 2 to 22.However poems like Sonnets, villanelles and others do have strict constructions. As far as understanding is concerned, it is a link between the "Title" and the "last line" (which is "The Hit")

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  2. Thanks Peter. I think this is why I have never attempted poetry - far too complicated for a simple soul like me.

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  3. Well! I think it was a Gay Story, never could resist the obvious; it's a failing of mine. Nicely written, tried hard not to smile at the ending (he chortled)...

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  4. And they galloped off into the sunset.You know I love a happy ending

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