Sleeping Beauty

 

There once was a comely king and his queen.

Upon the birth of their lovely Princess

Merriment throughout the kingdom was seen.

Drink and song became the people’s business

As worries were pushed into the distance.

The king invited all his fairy friends

            Forgetting one -- but he wished her riddance.

            He knew not her hatred would never mend

For this neglected fairy would cause his daughter’s end.

 

This bitter fairy hates every fairy.

            But princesses, mostly, she wished them ill.

            For you see, not all fairies are merry –

            Not all frolic and let their laughter spill.

            This neglected fairy would like to kill.

            So when she found out about the party

            She screamed until she had her sordid fill.

            When she arrived, the laughter was hearty

And she left them lamenting over their sweetie.

 

Before she left, she explained the girl’s fate –

            That in sewing, she will prick her finger,

            The blood will flow and the pain will be great,

            Despite remedies the pain will linger,

            Eternal sleep, she said, it will bring her.

            Those were the true words used in her spell weave.

            Sleep and death were the same, she figured.

            So when the princess was found sound asleep

The castle laughed at the fairy and did not weep.

 

When the jokes and mirth came to a timely stop,

            They simply moved the Princess to a bed,

            Then more jokes, for the subject would not drop.

            The fairy’s failure had gone to their head –

            Every new song or play the fairy did dread.

            For on stage she would be, portrayed and clowned.

            The critics each loved the theme and all commend,

            “Right now, the funniest demise in town

Is the witch who can not get her enchantment down.”

           

 

Now, being called a witch was the last straw

And so that fairy left that awful place.

All the jokes or jeers that escaped their maw

Could not reach her there but still held preface

To bitterness she wore like a necklace.

Bitterness aside, she was still stunning

For when the king had looked once on her face

He thought no other ladies were fitting

For the supernatural one was worth winning.

 

Such beauty, he knew, was not of this earth

                        And so he asked her what magic she knew

                        “Aye,” she said, “I am not from normal birth.

                        I am indeed a fairy, quite subdued.”

                        The king replied, “Subdued? What did you do?”

                        She would not tell because the past has passed.

                        The present only matters and all is new,

                        For her love for the king was growing fast,

And so she accepted his proposal at last.

           

         Shortly after her king’s invitation

            Before she unpacked her fairylike things

            He made apparent his inclination.

            “Can you cast some silver or ruby rings?

                        Surely you can create the stuff of kings!”

                        He asked her every day in stark demand.

                        She refused and offered no offerings

                        For although she had the magic at hand

She feared to error as she did in her old land.

 

She had offered no explanation and

The king, he had grown very impatient.

His love had dried out like the desert sand

Her beauty, too, seemed to be more latent.

As his requests edged on much more blatant

The fairy remained stubborn with “Never!”

He had grumbled and submerged, transient

In the woods, silent on his endeavor

For he from his wife and kingdom now did sever.

 

Now, during one of his many travels

   The king discovered an unknown castle.

   Inside he went to discover marvels,

   And searching for either lord or vassal,

   Found no such person and ceased the hassle.

   To one more room, he thought before leaving.

   For a while with the door he did wrestle,

   And inside, he did not dream of meeting

The fairest princess of all the kingdoms sleeping.

 

The princess was young and so beautiful

   And her breath was like a gentle calling,

   Her placid lips were irresistible

   And on his neck he felt her breath crawling.

   Upon her tender skin he was drawing

   Oblivious, she was of the man above

   She did not stir no matter the befalling.

   Upon her he gave his love brew thereof

And thus passionately gathered the fruits of love.

 

To his wife at home he grew indifferent

   And no longer demanded her to cast.

   Though relieved for his halt of mistreatment

   She often wondered how his time was passed.

   He left no indication where he’d been last.

   The king rode furiously, once a week

   To the princess’s castle to contrast

   His passion virile to her sleeping meek.

For nine months, every week he deftly left his streak.

 

After nine months did he find her awake.

   And in her arms she held a little child,

   For during childbirth pains the curse did break.

   The king was shocked and tried to beguile

   The princess whose temperament was mild.

   “That child you have is not mine,” he said,

   At which the princess let her tears run wild.

   So much at her woeful tears his heart shred

That her sorrow he kissed, groped, and took straight to bed.

 

 

And while in her arms the king realized

   His wife, the fairy, could do him no harm

   For her powers, she claimed, had vaporized.

   Gently, he took his princess by the arm

And led her home with gentlemanly charm

Such that his servants made her feel welcomed.

   “My new wife,” he explained, causing alarm.

The whole castle approved wife the second      

For she was younger, kinder, and much more fecund.

 

Imagine the rage of the fairy when

   She saw the princess and the child in view

   Alive and well, playing in her den.

   Oh, how homicide seems a tasty brew

   When your husband brings home a whole new crew.

   The fairy knew this princess at first glance

   Although the king introduced them as new.

   “My new wife,” he said, given the first chance

In front of the fairy, he held back no romance.

 

The king stroked his new wife’s long locks of hair

   While at the fairy he cackled and sneered.

   At last the fairy got up with a care

   And in her bitter soul the devil reared.

   She stormed down the stairs to where the old cooks sheared

   And bartered toxins with their weight in gold.

   The cooks refused to poison their revered

While the fairy had become blazed and bold.

She increased her payment two, three, tenfold.

 

Dinner that night was most spectacular--

   Broiled lamb, baked potatoes, and leek stew.

   The conversation quite vernacular--

   “Oh my! The weather!” or “How do you do?”

   Most exciting was who would first turn blue.

   The king, he too had paid the cooks a fee

   Married couple the first both looked for clues

   Will the fairy cough or will the princess wheeze?

That depended on gold -- quantity and degree.

 

Someone will die tonight, that is for sure,

   For even the cooks have gathered to see.

   They brewed a tasty venom with no cure

   “Another sip, please!” they did much decree

   Until one choked and collapsed of the three.

   The fairy, once again, induced laughter

   The way she splashed into the soup caused glee

   They continued to joke and jeer right at her

For they knew they lived “happily ever after.”      

 

 

-----END

 

ANALYSIS

 

Sleeping beauty represents, for me, the innocent bystander in the motives and ambitions of the sinister people around her. She is the ultimate example of the innocent virgin and is wordlessly passed around from one dominating force to the next. I am reading Anne Rice’s version of Sleeping Beauty (not exactly relevant, I know) and it is interesting how she is taking the rape of innocence to a whole other level. In common with the other versions of Sleeping Beauty, I have kept Beauty a passive character. I have tried to keep her as insignificant and personality-less as possible. She is just the object of abuse for the other characters. Which is sad.

 

The Fairy: I have decided to focus on the fairy and her king. The fairy starts out as the fairy in Perrault’s version and ends up as the wife from the “Talia” story. I wanted to have the fairy to be an abused figure also. Her ambitious personality is contrasted with Beauty’s passive nature to show that all are subjected to the mistreatment of the king, no matter if the character is in control of their lives or not.

 

The King: The king is the ravishing force in my story. Easiest to explain is his rape of the innocent beauty. He also denies the child is his but is so lustful he takes her to bed again, leaving him no choice but to take beauty home. His exploitation of the fairy begins with his request for her to cast him riches using her magic. As soon as she refuses, he renders her worthless. I’ve attempted to exaggerate the selfish nature of this man.

 

The Spencerian stanza: I have chosen to use the Spencerian stanza in this piece. The first 8 lines pentameter, last line hexameter.  Traditional Spencerian is supposed to be iambic, but I have trouble recognizing stresses so I didn’t follow too closely. I like how the stanza’s rhyme scheme flows from one line to the other, pausing briefly in the middle and longer at the end. I tried to keep the plot turn in the first pause and summarizing it in the last – exactly like how Spencer did it. Personally, I think fantasy’s ideal form is this stanza. This was my first attempt at trying it. I must admit this tale is not as near to my satisfaction as my Bluebeard tale.  I don’t consider myself a poet though so this story was writing out of my element. Any ways I chose to write in verse this time to make the story more fantastical.

 

I don’t know what else I can add; the story is one of the more straightforward I’ve written. I think I am becoming sympathetic to all the female characters being mistreated in every tale.