Image can be found at DarklingWoods.
Happily Ever After
By Amanda Marlowe
She dreams...
The courtiers bowing so low
They tumble forward into
A pompous pile
Of crimson velvet
That makes her laugh until
She can bear it no longer and
She runs forever,
Laughing as she runs...
She dreams...
The forest, calling to her
Behind a wall of thorns
And she steals the sword
From the empty suit of armor
In her father's throne room and
She hacks and hacks and hacks
Until she can see the trees
And the sun
She dreams...
Inside the tangled forest
Just the hint of some new trail
Leading to a dragon
Or an ogre
Or a witch
She outwits the foe and
She earns some great reward
Like freedom
She dreams...
Until a kiss,
Feather-light,
Brushes her lips and
She opens her eyes
To see the tenderness
That gazes at her face
To feel the gentle pressure
Of a hand on her own.
She looks into the burning eyes
And feels his hand crushing hers
She wakes...
And knows she is trapped,
As trapped as she was
The day the poisoned spindle
Pierced her finger
As painfully as the ring that
He slips over it now.
She will dream, and she will dream,
But she will never awaken
The woman she dreams about.
19
The courtiers bowing so low
They tumble forward into
A pompous pile
Of crimson velvet
That makes her laugh until
She can bear it no longer and
She runs forever,
Laughing as she runs...
She dreams...
The forest, calling to her
Behind a wall of thorns
And she steals the sword
From the empty suit of armor
In her father's throne room and
She hacks and hacks and hacks
Until she can see the trees
And the sun
She dreams...
Inside the tangled forest
Just the hint of some new trail
Leading to a dragon
Or an ogre
Or a witch
She outwits the foe and
She earns some great reward
Like freedom
She dreams...
Until a kiss,
Feather-light,
Brushes her lips and
She opens her eyes
To see the tenderness
That gazes at her face
To feel the gentle pressure
Of a hand on her own.
She looks into the burning eyes
And feels his hand crushing hers
She wakes...
And knows she is trapped,
As trapped as she was
The day the poisoned spindle
Pierced her finger
As painfully as the ring that
He slips over it now.
She will dream, and she will dream,
But she will never awaken
The woman she dreams about.
19
8 comments:
I loved this, it made me want to cry. I think you've done a brilliant job of questioning the reality of 'happily ever after'.
Oh, this poem made me so sad! That's the way it is with poetry, I suppose...that first, emotional response to the words on the page. In this case, the idea that we are sometimes trapped by the very circumstances we considered to be our saving grace!
But of course, there's more here than a trapped Sleeping Beauty. It's not just beautiful princesses who are unable to escape the lives we settle for or settle into...the desk worker who dreams of being a forest ranger, the clumsy child who dreams of being the star athlete, the middle-aged mom who longs to be a famous writer (wait-maybe that's just me!). But dreams never did make wishes come true, and fairy tales and the times, they are a'changin.
Perhaps the modern Sleeping Beauty wakes up, picks up her (or his) skirts and heads out into a world of her (or his) own making, carrying a happily ever after along for the ride!
I love this poem. It is beautifully written with great descriptions and rich details. It really got me thinking about these fairy tales and how they are changed sometimes into a “happily ever after” ending. A beautiful princess is rescued by her Prince Charming for a lifetime of being a queen and mother. Of course, we are made to believe that this is the life that every girl should want. Typically, most girls grow up wanting this fairy tale ending. Unfortunately, it does not always end up that way. Many times our misconstrued happy conclusions end up in divorce or being stuck in a bad career. What about the ones that never wanted this life to begin with? The ones who chose this life because it was what expected of them. Trapped in a life of suburban monotony because that is what we are taught. We are taught that, that is what little girls should want- to grow up, find your prince, get married, and have children. This poem definitely brings these false and unrealistic expectations to light.
I agree with Cathy though, times are a changing. I am that desk worker trapped in a life that I am realizing I never really wanted. However, I think we can all be modern day Sleeping Beauties and start changing our futures to be what we want, not what is expected of us. While this poem can be seen as sad and depressing, I am thinking of it as more of an inspiration.
Rasonda C.
E390
I am always intrigued by poetry. Poetry, to me, really is the heart and soul of any culture. We can all stand to learn about people’s culture by the face of a poem that is written. One can tell what is on the mind of the person that has written the poem and one can also tell possibly what was going on in the culture through the poet’s use of words. Art is driven from the soul, and this poem has soul! In references to many enchanted fairy tales this poem is really a rarity to capture the essence of a beauty within a person’s dreams and life!
To be married to the man she loves only to be awoken by a man she is scared of and not to be the man that she desired. Happily ever after? What does this really succumb too? Be careful for dreams may not be necessities of life, but life becomes a necessity in dreams.
This poem really got to me. I was just thinking about how Beauty would react and feel upon wakening and then I read this poem. It seems very fitting to how she most likely would feel. If only she had not been so curious and touched the spindle without even a moment’s thought! To live comfortably with your parents and then wake up as a bride to your own kingdom would be quite an ordeal. It is a good way to learn a lesson that you cannot turn back time. Beauty will always be longing for what she had and maybe had she not been so curious she might have been able to create her own path in life or find a prince that truly suited her. The prince probably thinks he did a great deed and is her savior, but all she longs for is to go back to her lovely dreams and sleep for another one hundred years. Great poem!
Gabrielle L.
This poem made me think that the princess never wants to wake up. She's scared of what her own reality of what she will be waking up too. She dreams that she will never be happy, but always in pain. She realizes that once she does wakeup she will go though the agony of what all of the other princesses had to go through. Fighting the Ogre and the witch who tries to defeat her to gain power, about the kiss from the prince who is in reality a complete stranger to her and one day end's up living happily ever after to someone she only knew because of kiss! She is a princess that is in a deep sleep dreaming of her own fate that is about to come, just waiting for that kiss!
KM
I agree that this poem was written very well and the descriptions were great! It made me a little sad after reading it too. It makes me think that people make mistakes and when we can not go back and change them, we realize how we've messed up our lives. That's how life goes, and it's not always fair or a happy place to be. Sleeping beauty's curiousity to explore the castle and touch the spindle caused much harm upon her. Just like today, a teenager's curiousity to drink at a party, drive home, and then get into an accident causes great harm to them too. Stupid mistakes and human curiousity is dangerous. It's a sad, harsh part of reality.
MelissaW
I liked how this poem described the realities of the situation instead of just the glazed-over Grimm tale. Instead of living “happily ever after,” this poem brings a more modern and realistic perspective of the scenario through the woman’s eyes. In so many tales, the princess irrationally marries a prince without knowing him for more than one or two encounters. Fortunately for them, however, the fairy tale world seems to make these relationships work.
On the other hand, bringing relationships from high school into mind, teenagers tend to have the same initial attraction as a prince and princess but with a radically different result. Some last a few months, some last a few days. The reality of a commitment, as you have described, just does not sink in for them right away. In the beginning, the relationship is all a fairy tale as they had dreamed, but more and more it may turn out like the trap as mentioned here.
Andrew S.
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