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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=416853" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Speeding Of The King's Spite</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">A king--estranged from his loving Queen<br>By a foolish royal whim--<br>Tired and sick of the dull routine<br>Of matters surrounding him--<br>Issued a mandate in this wise.--<br>'THE DOWER OF MY DAUGHTER'S HAND<br>I WILL GIVE TO HIM WHO HOLDS THIS PRIZE,<br>THE STRANGEST THING IN THE LAND.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But the King, sad sooth! in this grim decree<br>Had a motive low and mean;--<br>'Twas a royal piece of chicanery<br>To harry and spite the Queen;<br>For King though he was, and beyond compare,<br>He had ruled all things save one--<br>Then blamed the Queen that his only heir<br>Was a daughter--not a son.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The girl had grown, in the mother's care,<br>Like a bud in the shine and shower<br>That drinks of the wine of the balmy air<br>Till it blooms into matchless flower;<br>Her waist was the rose's stem that bore<br>The flower--and the flower's perfume--<br>That ripens on till it bulges o'er<br>With its wealth of bud and bloom.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And she had a lover--lowly sprung,--<br>But a purer, nobler heart<br>Never spake in a courtlier tongue<br>Or wooed with a dearer art:<br>And the fair pair paled at the King's decree;<br>But the smiling Fates contrived<br>To have them wed, in a secrecy<br>That the Queen HERSELF connived--</div><div style="margin:10px 0">While the grim King's heralds scoured the land<br>And the countries roundabout,<br>Shouting aloud, at the King's command,<br>A challenge to knave or lout,<br>Prince or peasant,--'The mighty King<br>Would have ye understand<br>That he who shows him the strangest thing<br>Shall have his daughter's hand!'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And thousands flocked to the royal throne,<br>Bringing a thousand things<br>Strange and curious;--One, a bone--<br>The hinge of a fairy's wings;<br>And one, the glass of a mermaid queen,<br>Gemmed with a diamond dew,<br>Where, down in its reflex, dimly seen,<br>Her face smiled out at you.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">One brought a cluster of some strange date,<br>With a subtle and searching tang<br>That seemed, as you tasted, to penetrate<br>The heart like a serpent's fang;<br>And back you fell for a spell entranced,<br>As cold as a corpse of stone,<br>And heard your brains, as they laughed and danced<br>And talked in an undertone.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">One brought a bird that could whistle a tune<br>So piercingly pure and sweet,<br>That tears would fall from the eyes of the moon<br>In dewdrops at its feet;<br>And the winds would sigh at the sweet refrain,<br>Till they swooned in an ecstacy,<br>To waken again in a hurricane<br>Of riot and jubilee.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">One brought a lute that was wrought of a shell<br>Luminous as the shine<br>Of a new-born star in a dewy dell,--<br>And its strings were strands of wine<br>That sprayed at the Fancy's touch and fused,<br>As your listening spirit leant<br>Drunken through with the airs that oozed<br>From the o'ersweet instrument.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">One brought a tablet of ivory<br>Whereon no thing was writ,--<br>But, at night--and the dazzled eyes would see<br>Flickering lines o'er it,--<br>And each, as you read from the magic tome,<br>Lightened and died in flame,<br>And the memory held but a golden poem<br>Too beautiful to name.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Till it seemed all marvels that ever were known<br>Or dreamed of under the sun<br>Were brought and displayed at the royal throne,<br>And put by, one by one<br>Till a graybeard monster came to the King--<br>Haggard and wrinkled and old--<br>And spread to his gaze this wondrous thing,--<br>A gossamer veil of gold.--</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Strangely marvelous--mocking the gaze<br>Like a tangle of bright sunshine,<br>Dipping a million glittering rays<br>In a baptism divine:<br>And a maiden, sheened in this gauze attire--<br>Sifting a glance of her eye--<br>Dazzled men's souls with a fierce desire<br>To kiss and caress her and--die.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And the grim King swore by his royal beard<br>That the veil had won the prize,<br>While the gray old monster blinked and leered<br>With his lashless, red-rimmed eyes,<br>As the fainting form of the princess fell,<br>And the mother's heart went wild,<br>Throbbing and swelling a muffled knell<br>For the dead hopes of her child.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But her clouded face with a faint smile shone,<br>As suddenly, through the throng,<br>Pushing his way to the royal throne,<br>A fair youth strode along,<br>While a strange smile hovered about his eyes,<br>As he said to the grim old King:--<br>'The veil of gold must lose the prize;<br>For _I_ have a stranger thing.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He bent and whispered a sentence brief;<br>But the monarch shook his head,<br>With a look expressive of unbelief--<br>'It can't be so,' he said;<br>'Or give me proof; and I, the King,<br>Give you my daughter's hand,--<br>For certes THAT IS a stranger thing--<br>THE STRANGEST THING IN THE LAND!'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then the fair youth, turning, caught the Queen<br>In a rapturous caress,<br>While his lithe form towered in lordly mien,<br>As he said in a brief address:--<br>'My fair bride's mother is this; and, lo,<br>As you stare in your royal awe,<br>By this pure kiss do I proudly show<br>A LOVE FOR A MOTHER-IN-LAW!'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then a thaw set in the old King's mood,<br>And a sweet Spring freshet came<br>Into his eyes, and his heart renewed<br>Its love for the favored dame:<br>But often he has been heard to declare<br>That 'he never could clearly see<br>How, in the deuce, such a strange affair<br>Could have ended so happily!'</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=James+Whitcomb+Riley">James Whitcomb Riley</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=416853" data-title="The Speeding Of The King's Spite de James Whitcomb Riley" data-description="A king--estranged from his loving Queen
By a foolish royal whim--
Tired and sick of the dull routine
Of matters surrounding him--
Issued a mandate in this wise.--
'THE DOWER OF MY DAUGHTER'S HAND
I WILL GIVE TO HIM WHO HOLDS THIS PRIZE,
THE STRANG..."></div>
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