Ponyville & Other Poems

by AugieDog

42 - Rolling On (modified chant royale)

Predictable? You really don't believe
We might've crashed and burned at any time?
From Nightmare Moon to Cozy Glow, the weave
Of destiny, I guess, appeared to climb,
Resembled upward growth, but stuck within,
I found it wracked my nerves and froze my skin.
Awareness drove me, stabbed me lest I fail,
Imbued my thoughts with each grotesque detail
Of horrors waiting. Worst? That all would know
Destruction came when I had proven stale.
Demanding more, I forced my mind to grow.

Surrounded, eyes of friends, demure, sublime,
Their kind regard as sharp as any pin:
I couldn't let them down, refused the grime
Of sweet defeat, and grasped the sweeter win.
Together ranging forward stump or sail,
We wouldn't stop. We learned from each derail,
Expanded our capacities...although
We'd often wilt like flowers, melt like snow.
When circumstances sought to rend and reave,
I'd clench my teeth and set my horn to glow.
Demanding more, I told myself, "Achieve!

"Return to deepest roots, the origin
Of ponykind!" I tore aside the veil
Dividing tribes, the magic all akin
From hooves and horns and feathers, seized the grail,
And drank the knowledge, cool and deep and slow.
"To Twilight! Lost in books!" the taunt would go—
Deserved, it's true. The quest would sometimes thieve
My time with friends, bamboozle, blind, deceive.
Attempt a separation. Horrid crime!
For friendship's magic bore the crop to sheave!
Demanding more, I squashed the paradigm.

Transforming, changing, hawk from lowly snail,
A princess now, I cowered, hunkered low,
Consumed again by doubt, its weeping wail
Cacophonous: "Remain an embryo!"
I couldn't, though. The more it tried to grieve
My twisting gut, the more I tried to heave
Its yoke away. I slipped upon its slime
But gaining traction, rose to power's prime.
Triumphant-seeming, shaped by discipline,
I took my place, a royal pantomime.
Demanding more, I vanquished every sin!

Except I didn't. Feigning can't bestow
Abilities like sewing on a sleeve.
I'm still myself and never learned to crow
Accomplishments. A crown is no reprieve
When nagging inner voices start to chime
Complete with countermelodies and rhyme.
Discussion helps to drive away the din,
A kindly ear, a gentle mandolin.
To save the world, I needn't self-impale;
Support's the pole that makes my axis spin.
Demanding more, my heart continues frail.

Remember that, and watch us reach the eve
Of something great. With hope assisting, I'm
Creating worlds that spread with laugh and grin.
Unclench the teeth, I say. Relax. Inhale.
Demanding more can wait while breezes blow...

Author's Note:

One last poem from Twilight:

Will put the cork in this collection, I think, after nine years and 42 pieces.

As for the form, the problem I've always found with the chant royal—and I've done two of them here, one from Rarity and one from Twilight if you'd like to compare those to this—is that the standard version isn't fair to all the rhymes involved.

I mean, in a sonnet, you have 7 rhyming sounds spread out over 14 lines. So each rhyme appears twice all nice and equitable. In a chant royal, though, you've got 5 rhymes spread out over 60 lines with the pattern saying that 1 of the rhymes only appears 7 times, though it then gets used as the repeated refrain at the end of each stanza, 3 of the rhymes appear 10 times, and the 5th rhyme has to appear in 18 different rhyming words through the whole thing! It's a shocking state of affairs!

So I modified things by shifting the rhymes. The sound that ends the 2nd and 4th lines in one stanza shifts up to end the 1st and 3rd line in the next stanza. That pulls all the other rhymes up, too, and the sound that started the stanza pops down the end the next. This meant having to change the idea that the last line of each stanza would be the same, so here, the beginning of that last line is always the same, but the ending changes to match the new rhyming sound in that place.

It also means you've gotta do something with the envoy, the short stanza at the end. I thought about leaving it out entirely, but then I decided to give each rhyming sound one last line apiece. I still don't know if it works, but, well, we're all about experimenting with technicalities around here!

And it seemed appropriate for Twilight, a princess who changes the concept of what it means to be royalty, to also changes the concept of the chant royal, so let's call it all part of the theme and let it go at that.

Thanks for reading the poems, folks!

Mike

Comments

[TheJediMasterEd]

What a great run, and what a marvelous finale!

I think one thing formal verse has to offer the modern world is the opportunity to put a subtext in the structure of the poem itself. Like acrostic verse, but subtler.

Thank you for sharing all this with us!

[FanOfMostEverything]

An exquisite finale, and a fantastic portrayal of Twilight’s nerves fraying as she spends nine seasons waiting for the other shoe to drop. Thank you for it and all its predecessors.