I sat on the throne, constipated, and said,
“What can be done with a barren bed?”
No heir comes forth without desire.
Love’s ashes crumble after fire.
So how can I sire an heir?
At length the answer came to me.
This queen commits adultery!
A king, known strong by one and all,
Declares the great ho’s head must fall!
But what will become of Liz?
Our firstborn child, a bastard is,
And such shall be the fate of Liz.
This king, that others think as free,
In fact’s a slave to dynasty.
Then what will become of Anne?
The news arrived by morning late.
She had met with a traitor’s fate.
They’ll never know how much I grieved,
In killing one, whom love deceived.
Now what will become of me?
end
Mr. E. Bates is a poet who likens the quest for love to a foxhunt,
in which it is the chase and not the kill that appeals.
Henry VIII’s Lament for Anne Boleyn