SLEEPING BEAUTY
Sleeping Beauty remodeled the moat
And sold an easement through the forest;
Oh Loveliness, enchanting and remote —
L'Ars florissant she sent back to the florist.
At least her fit of pique is on display
To add a note of valuable contempt,
For who ever heard of saints without dismay?
The perfect knight requires a sidekick unkempt.
Sans peur and sans reproche are out of stock,
And rarely will a dragon work for scale;
No wonder Blue Beard's castle is for sale:
La Belle Dame Sans Merci hath thee in hock.
Sleeping Beauty is irritated when awakened,
So take her glamorousness and vanity —
Morality plays convey the divine and inanity —
Yes, take the bathroom fixtures and the vanity,
But leave the air of innocence unforsaken.
NOTES for Students of English
L'Ars florissant — Old French for "the flourishing art" referring to "l'ars nova florissant," a style of polyphonic music that developed in the 14th century.
"Sans peur et sans reproche" — French for "without fear and beyond reproach," used to define the epitome of chivalry — the fearless and faultless knight.
"To work for scale" is to work at the minimum wage as set by the actors' unions.
La Belle Dame Sans Merci — French for "The beautiful lady without pity"; a ballad by John Keats written in 1819; the tenth stanza reads: "I saw pale kings and princes too,/Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;/They cried — "La Belle Dame Sans Merci/Hath thee in thrall!"
OLD SINGERS
Reel, spool, and bobbin —
Cycles have their allure;
Torque stops: What will endure?
The hum breaks off like sobbing.
Old singers are dead, but discs restore
Their whir, the glamour and appeal;
And yet, to have heard it all before
Seems hardly now to keep from binding
Invisible filaments that go on winding;
Swatches of song that make one wheel
Are déjà vu: bobbin, spool, reel.
Revival doesn't mean that purity alone
Is prized, or tendon prized up from bone,
But only that a seamless chord rekindle
Bobbin, reel, spool, and spindle.
Treadle clef, organ and pedal retool
Phantasmagoria, and now draw out instead
Of useless grinding heat, seized up and dead,
From twill and wiles the "Lay of Ultima Tulle";
Arpeggios unwind — reel, bobbin, and spool —
A thrilling core, magnificat of thread.