Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PROSE POEM, by JAMES GIBBONS HUNEKER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PROSE POEM, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: She lay in the hall of mirrors
Last Line: Processional sadness.
Subject(s): Courts & Courtiers; Love; Mirrors; Soul; Royal Court Life; Royalty; Kings; Queens


She lay in the Hall of the Mirrors where, repeated in evanescent gestures, her
person moved with processional precision. She had disrobed to the accompaniment
of soft, hidden music, and to the unconscious miming of the mirrors; something
of fear and something of shame were in her heart as she pulled to her pretty
chin the royal counterpane. It was the first time she had ever lain in a palace,
and the night seemed to hum with a thousand harps. It was the music and the
beating of her heart that she heard, and she wondered most at the heavily
scented atmosphere, and smiled at the face that smiled down at her from the
shining ceiling. Her plump body sank in relaxing curves; the very couch seemed
to embrace her. Then she heard footsteps and dared no longer gaze into the
ironic mirror overhead. As the prince approached love loomed nigh. There was no
tenderness in his eyes, and his young forehead was slightly wrinkled. It was his
nuptial night; for him was waiting a fair girl, whose pulses leapt to the sound
of his voice. But he had no words for her when he reached the royal bed that
stood in the Hall of the Mirrors. His troubled gaze drove the blood to her
heart, when he sat beside her and the music ceased and the mirrors grew grey and
misty. She had waited for this moment since her birth; their souls had been
woven together by imperial decree, yet now they circled about each other like
two tall stars in interstellar depths, bound for eternity to tread in the
stately dance of the spheres, aeons apart, and destined never to embrace. With
outstretched, despairing arms she welcomed her image in the air above her, and
her impassioned, sorrowful glance married her to her own soul. The prince told
her in falsetto tones of his desire for rest, and she welcomed him as one would
a pet poodle; beside his sleepy escaping soul she lay in the Hall of the
Mirrors, where, repeated in evanescent gestures, her person moved in
processional sadness.





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