‘The Pleasure-Time of Good Queen Bess’ by Becca Menon

Now does a mischief Winter grip our Isle with hands
Which, Midas-like, turn all they touch to silvery ice.
Thus does our season prove itself more strong than old,
Its touch is an enchantment dazzling to behold.

Now does your gentle Queen make from adversity
A virtue, that you may not suffer from the frost,
Thus we decree a pleasure-time of festival;
And this, unsubtle Spring alone can dare annul.

“So frolic on the frozen Thames,
Which now stands still and hard with diadems
Of sparkling, ice-cased branches by.
For on the river’s glass stand high
Pavilions, which, by my command,
Shall host your games as though on land.”

Thus does your Queen, in rhyming with a magic clime,
Transform your ordinary world.  And so before
Untidy Spring, the wizard Winter’s callow heir,
Disturb the fête, go revel in the snow-bright air.

“But go and tell our gift to all the earth,
That all may know your pleasure and Our worth,
And think, nor joy nor players shall know death,
So History may dote upon Elizabeth.”

Becca Menon is an American writer whose largely narrative poetic works, based in myth, fairy tale, folklore and Scripture have been hailed internationally in countries such as Iran, India, Iraq, Canada and the United Kingdom as well as the United States.  Some shorter works, essays and translations appear in print and online in publications that include Parnassus, Mezzo Cammin, Kritya, Antiphon and others.  She is associate editor of Phoenix Rising¸ a multilingual sonnet anthology.