Poetry Blog No 125 The King Who Believed Everything

         

THE KING WHO BELIEVED EVERYTHING

The following ballad is based on a folk-tale from Austria. It concerns a king who is so gullible that he believes everything... well, nearly everything. The ballad in the tradition of poetic form is usually composed of stanzas or verses of four lines with some rhyming scheme. It is usually some form of narrative that can be historical, tragic, romantic or comic. The commonest line is a four-footed eight syllable in iambic (iambic tetrameter) Now once there was a foolish king.

Ballads were often set to music ( as in folk songs from many places) and this led to the use of the term for sentimental narrative songs, some blues songs and slower popular songs usually romantic in nature. The ballad form was also used by 18th and 19th century poets for more literary or lyrical effect- The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Coleridge) and La Belle Dame Sans Merci (Keats) are two famous examples. Ballads have also been popular in Australia as the main form of "Bush" poetry.

The King Who Believed Everything was published in a slightly modified form (no hemp) in the NSW School Magazine. 

 

Jakob Jordaens The King Drinks

                  THE KING WHO BELIEVED EVERYTHING

Now once there was a foolish king

Who would believe most anything.

He searched for any who could weave

A tale that he would not believe.

With castle, gold, and lands, for lure,

So many tried to find a cure,

So many liars tried and lost

And in deep dungeon paid the cost.

A farm lad came with his attempt,

"One day I sowed a field of hemp:

Before I'd finished, my first seed

Had sprung up higher than all the trees."

"Soon it was higher than any tower.

I left it for a few days now,

Until it rose right out of view."

"Yes," said the king, "that sounds quite true."

"And so I thought that I might try

To climb up through the sunny sky

Until I came to heaven's sphere;

The climb took me a weary year."

"In heaven angels flew most fair,

Through perfumed, light-filled, singing air;

And beauty shone from everything."

"Yes, I believe you," said the king.

"I saw my mother and father both

A-riding in a silver coach;

In golden robes they took their ease."

"Yes," said the king, "that I'll believe."

"Then I went onward, wondering,

And then I saw your parents, king,

All dressed in rags, with filth and slime,

And caring for a herd of swine."

"You lie," the king roared out this time,

"My parents can't be handling swine!

Deceiving rogue, I'll have your head!"

"I'll have your prize," the farm lad said.