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CAPTIVE SONG OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS (Laurence Josephs) Though I was crowned a French princess My day was quickly done To trail my childhood's royal dress In the Paris sun My husband was to be a king But died a little child And I was sent without my ring Back to Scotland wild O Mary, Mother, hear my prayer My cousin is a queen Most powerful, though not so fair As I have always been In Scotland found I men to love To love, if not to like Who killed each other for my glove With knife or sword or pike But I took one to husband there So pretty, slim-hipped, spoiled With velvet eyes and gilded hair Who fathered me a child O Mary, Mother, hear my prayer My cousin is a queen Most powerful, though not so fair As I have always been From this high window seems the earth A desert or a stone Despite the son I brought to birth Who'll sit the English throne To rule where I have never stood To rule when I am dead Who'll nought remember of my good Nor any word I said O Mary, Mother, hear my prayer My cousin is a queen Most powerful, though not so fair As I have always been Ah, God, it is an empty thing To one gone mad for love To want it more than be a king The royal world above And I was once a French princess Though that was quickly done And trail'd my childhood's purple dress In the Paris sun Words: Laurence Josephs Tune: J.Redpath Recorded Fine Song for Singing 1987 Laurence Josephs joined the Department of English at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs in 1963, and was resident poet and Professor of English there till his retirement. His work has appeared in innumerable publications but can most readily be found in his own collections: Cold Water Morning [published 1964]; Six Elegies [1973]. Most recently his poetry appears in North Country, an anthology published by the Greenfield Review Press and in Remembered Blood: American Poets on the Holocaust, published by Avon. Laurence gave me the text for Captive Song of Mary Stuart in 1964 when he was caught by the poignant images of Mary, Queen of Scots as portrayed in traditional balladry. @history @royalty filename[ CAPTVMAR MS Feb07 |
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