The Princess's Oath

The princess loved a farmer's boy.
In darkness they eloped;
Cast between doomed plight and joy,
The moonless night their cloak.

They found the coast at Barbary,
But trouble followed them;
Their vows transformed to slavery,
By grubby, swarthy, men.

No more this life she'd see his face;
They were confined apart.
The creaking keel replaced his voice,
The eddy's beat, his heart.

Strange hue and cry, and worried shout,
Foul sickness in the hold.
Good many lives were soon snuffed out,
Wretched, turned stone cold.

Endless dark drove others mad;
There was no night and day.
The dead, the daft, the bad, the sad,
All held the sea at bay.

But not the princess. No, not she;
She let the ocean in.
Pressed hard her ears to make them see
Beyond the fear and din.

Each night she'd cool her brine-filled eyes
Upon her iron chains,
Attention rapt in lullabies,
Soft echoes of her pains.

Whale song found her heart forlorn
And said it understood;
That only those alive can mourn,
Not knowing what is good.

She whispered through the rough hewn knots
And offered up a prayer,
That she, whom the dried land had lost,
Could drown, and so be spared.

The whales sought out the dolphin prince,
And he, in turn, the King,
Who raised an army of his nymphs
To storm and thunder bring.

“I come for you, oh daughter, child,”
He murmured on the current.
“Your love is dead,” the old King lied.
“Now, keep this covenant.”

“Oh, sire! Release your mighty power,
And deliver me to you.
You'll have my oath this very hour,
If all you say is true.”

“Then come to me, my princess dark,
And set your heart to stone.
The hounds of heaven growl and bark
To fetch and bring you home.”

With this last word, the ocean ripped
And made a swirling pool.
The sturdy ship reduced to sticks
The sailors prayed like fools.

But God was not upon this tide,
Instead, rose King Neptune,
He tossed the dead and dying wide,
Sent ship and crew to doom.

The water found the princess's lungs,
Leaking in where life ebbed out.
Amid the dying cries of men
She heard one lonely shout.

It was her love, the farmer's boy;
He hadn't died at all.
The oath meant naught, the prayer destroyed,
She tried herself to call.

No sound came from her lips so blue.
He looked at her with fear.
Her dead eyes showed him love so true;
Lost twice, this love, so dear!

Dry land is left for living things,
But not so is the sea;
The magic that the ocean brings,
Spells, songs and mystery.

After nine days, or so it's told,
The sea gives up her dead.
But woe, the princess, wet and cold,
Has never risen yet.

(80 lines)