The Tale of the Six Swans

Gold cherry
Poem of the week

By onemorething

Fri, 11 Feb 2022
  • 2976 reads
15 comments
 

Based on the Brothers Grimm tale of The Six Swans.

 

I did not speak or laugh

for six years, each an exchange

of muteness for a swan,

the words stolen from my mouth;

a spell itself, this silence squandered

on men. I learn and learn – you can offer

a man everything and it will still not be enough,

until love is a sentence.

Still, my fingers bleed, needle asters

into new shirts, I eat my children,

I become the source of my own despair,

I become the source of my own salvation,

until there is sunlight and restoration,

but I do not know if I believe in happy endings,

so I sleep, crows beneath my bed to keep the ghosts

at bay, and my body is my kingdom, at last.  

 

Illustration is by Walter Crane for 1914 Brothers Grimm edition. 

https://tinyurl.com/36btf3j9

 

 

Certificate 15
Poem
Unclassified

Comments

Submitted by airyfairy on

Oh my goodness, this was one of my favourite fairy tales when I was younger, and you don't often hear about it now. As ever, you have crafted it into something totally original, while retaining the feel and mood of the original. And what a beautiful picture. Thanks for posting this.

Submitted by onemorething on

Thank you airyfairy, and for the cherries. Yes, a little darkened by me, I suppose, but I was rereading it and was struck by how much the daughter was doing for men and / or surviving the actions of men even by extension, at the hand of stepmother and Queen Mother. And Walter Crane, love every illustration of his, all magnificent. :)

 

Submitted by airyfairy on

This beautiful and haunting retelling of one of the strangest of fairytales is our Facebook and Twitter Pick of the Day! Please do share/retweet if you enjoy it too. 

Submitted by airyfairy on

This is also our Poem of the Week! Congratulations! 

Submitted by onemorething on

Cor, blimey, Pick of the Day and Pick of the Week! Chuffed to bits, thank you. I can't even have a pina colada to celebrate either because I'm up super early tomorrow, but there's always Saturday night... Thanks ever so much! 

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

That always bothered me, too. Weaving nettles. And for so many shirts. Why is it always females whose way to be brave is to endure while males go off and fight monsters? Instead of monstrous other females?

I like Walter Crane too, but know about him for his stained glass :0)

you can offer

a man everything and it will still not be enough,

until love is a sentence.

and

my body is my kingdom, at last.  

I cannot explain how much this poem means to me. 

 

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thanks so much, Di. What a very lovely comment. Yes, weaving nettles, I might change asters to nettles. I'll think about it for another draft. I used asters because it happened to be those in a variation I was reading today, and I thought it had a magical quality in terms of an image at the time. I might prefer nettles now though. Am so happy you enjoyed it. :)

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

I think I'm going to have to find this fairytale and re-read as I don't remember it - but your poem is splendidly dark. I'll come back again tomorrow and re-read. Very big congratulations for all those cherries!

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Yes, do. And thank you! Always thrilling to find cherries and Pick of the Week. :)

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

Do you know, I'm not sure I ever read that story before? It is very strange isn't it - the happy ending almost tagged on so as not to upset too much. The casual acceptance of woman/female as property, to be passed around. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to say thank goodness that doesn't happen anymore?

 

Submitted by onemorething on

It is very strange, but I suppose most Grimm tales are strange and dark. And yes, it would be wonderful if we could say women weren't sometimes treated like this anymore. :)

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Oh no! Don't change it? I thought it was a red aster of blood the needle made by pricking ? and the petals seeping into the shirt?

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Oh, no, in one variation, she is making shirts from nettles and in another, she's making them from asters. However, there are a quite a surprising number of variations of this tale, worldwide. I think I like nettles because of the suggestion of pain. But I'll mull it over. x

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I don't know about asters, but nettles really were made into cloth. Have a vague memory reading the German army at one time had uniforms made out of them? Maybe asters are used in warmer climates if they have stringy stalks too

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Oh, I didn't know that. I will look it up. :)