A queen waiting in her tent

Queen Henrietta Maria

Poem·about 1 min

"My freedom, and my life republican!"
The speaker
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Poem

In the lone tent, waiting for victory,She stands with eyes marred by the mists of pain,Like some wan lily overdrenched with rain:The clamorous clang of arms, the ensanguined sky,War’s ruin, and the wreck of chivalryTo her proud soul no common fear can bring:Bravely she tarrieth for her Lord the King,Her soul a-flame with passionate ecstasy.O Hair of Gold! O Crimson Lips! O FaceMade for the luring and the love of man!With thee I do forget the toil and stress,The loveless road that knows no resting place,Time’s straitened pulse, the soul’s dread weariness,My freedom, and my life republican!

Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0 1.0)

In brief

Summary

A sonnet on a queen seen waiting for news of battle. In a lonely tent Queen Henrietta Maria stands with eyes 'marred by the mists of pain', like a lily drenched with rain, yet the clang of arms and the wreck of chivalry cannot frighten her; she waits bravely for 'her Lord the King'. In the last six lines the speaker turns to her beauty, her gold hair, crimson lips and face made for love, and confesses that with her he forgets his weariness, his freedom and even his 'life republican'.

Key themes

"O Hair of Gold! O Crimson Lips! O Face"
The speaker

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Summary

The octave pictures the Queen 'In the lone tent, waiting for victory'. Her eyes are 'marred by the mists of pain', and she is 'Like some wan lily overdrenched with rain'. Around her are 'The clamorous clang of arms, the ensanguined sky, / War's ruin, and the wreck of chivalry', but 'no common fear' can touch her 'proud soul'. 'Bravely she tarrieth for her Lord the King', her soul 'a-flame with passionate ecstasy'.

The sestet breaks into direct address: 'O Hair of Gold! O Crimson Lips! O Face / Made for the luring and the love of man!' The speaker says that with her he forgets 'the toil and stress', 'The loveless road that knows no resting place', 'Time's straitened pulse, the soul's dread weariness', and finally, as a surprising last item, 'My freedom, and my life republican!'

Characters

  • Queen Henrietta Maria

    The waiting queen

    The queen of the title, seen alone in a tent 'waiting for victory' while war rages. Pale and pained 'Like some wan lily', she is still unafraid, waiting 'Bravely' for her husband the King. The speaker praises her gold hair, crimson lips and face 'Made for the luring and the love of man'.

  • The speaker

    The republican admirer

    The watcher who describes the Queen in her tent and then addresses her directly. He admits that in her presence he forgets his weariness, his freedom and his 'life republican', a confession that turns his admiration into a playful betrayal of his own principles.

Themes

Courage in defeat

The Queen is fragile and brave at once. She is 'Like some wan lily overdrenched with rain', her eyes blurred with pain, yet 'The clamorous clang of arms' and 'the wreck of chivalry' bring 'no common fear' to 'her proud soul'. The phrase 'Bravely she tarrieth for her Lord the King' makes waiting itself a kind of heroism, as the battle goes on out of sight.

Beauty over belief

The speaker is a republican, opposed to kings, yet a royalist queen makes him forget it. The list in the sestet builds from private troubles, 'the toil and stress' and 'the soul's dread weariness', to his political faith: 'My freedom, and my life republican!' The joke carries a real point: beauty, in this poem, is stronger than conviction.

Quotes

Every line is copied from the text and links to where it appears.

Context

'Queen Henrietta Maria' is the second of the poems grouped as 'Written at the Lyceum Theatre' in Wilde's collected poems. Henrietta Maria was the French-born queen of Charles I of England, who stood by the royalist cause in the Civil War; the poem's 'Lord the King' is Charles, though he is not named. It is a sonnet, and it names no performer.

About this edition

  • Text: the complete work from Standard Ebooks, released into the public domain (CC0 1.0). We change only the layout.
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