Lyr Add: Queen's Command, The

28 Oct 08 - 08:42 PM (#2478647)
Subject: Lyr Add: Queen's Command, The
From: Charley Noble

This is one of my mother's poems which has an environmental message to those who would exploit the earth:

By Dahlov Ipcar, © 1967,
from Whisperings and Other Things, published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

The Queen's Command

The Queen said to the huntsmen,
"Go forth into the jungle
And kill all the beasts of the jungle
That covers my royal domain.
Kill all the striped tigers
And the gold spotted leopards.
Kill all the great gray tuskers
And the shy and slender antelopes.
Go banish the mighty jungle,
The deep and tangled jungle,
The fierce and savage jungle
That covers my royal domain!"

The Queen said to the woodsmen,
"Go forth into the jungle
And cut down the trees of the jungle
That covers my royal domain.
Cut down the slender palm trees
And the massive trees of the swamp.
Cut down the tangled creepers.
Cut down the giant fern trees.
Go banish the mighty jungle,
The dank and steaming jungle,
The green and useless jungle
That covers my royal domain!"

So they went forth into the jungle
To cut down the trees of the jungle
And kill all the beasts of the jungle,
The wild, primeval jungle,
The secret silent jungle;
But they came not back again.
The trees still grow in the jungle.
The beasts still prowl in the jungle.
And life still thrives in the jungle,
The rich and teeming jungle,
The lush and spreading jungle
That covers the Queen's domain.

Mother will be celebrating her 91st birthday next week and still lives in her farmhouse in Maine on the edge of a great forest.

This seems more of a chant than a song.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

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29 Oct 08 - 07:46 PM (#2479441)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Queen's Command, The
From: Charley Noble

Going once!

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