The 99 Poem Challenge
Fox-Trot-9

99. Epic — The Flying Dutchman
Canto 1 — Lost at Sea

The overcast of morn had cleared across
The sky, emblazoned with the sun in warmth
And light now streaming through the colored glass
And landing on the pews, a light that both
Uplifts my temper and excites my nerves
To know that in a fortnight I will change
My name and be a wife, dear God, a wife!
I say, between the January frost
Of winter and the budding spring of March,
Scarcely a day has failed to pass me by                         (10)
When time and time again I found myself
Pacing about where'er I went, my thoughts
Fixed on his whereabouts upon the sea.
I know not where he is but pray he makes it
O'er there adrift on tossing waves and billows,
O'er there with wayward crew 'neath sun-baked masts,
Looking perchance from out his cabin window
As I imagine him out there, and thinking
Upon me here—or so I'm wont to think.
God knows what he is doing over there,                         (20)
While over here my mind runs wild with worry.

But over here within the leafy groves
Of ancient Zederik, so far away *
From crowded Rotterdam and Amsterdam, **
Begins the weekly toil of sacraments
Unto the grand pursuits of wealth and faith,
Where the sun shines upon the sweaty brows
Of lawyers, ministers, physicians, clerks,
Industrialists, and farmers, and shopkeepers
And bureaucrats, the lot of them beneath                         (30)
The spell of trade, religion, politics!
The Twelve Year's Truce that was supposed t' ensure ***
The peace o'er all still makes me cringe to hear
Of Oldenbarnevelt's beheading hawked ****
By every doorman, even at the church.
It seems to me that, even here where God
Should reign, the knives of discontent still haunt
The weary minds of everyone but me.

No matter: here I am anticipating
The swift return of Phillip Vander Fokke, *****                         (40)
The fastest man to ever captain ship
Across the seven seas, the bravest man
To ever sail through squall or storm, the best
And only man for me. Yet here I was
In constant agitation 'neath the chapel
Steep, walking to and fro, in expectation!
Oh, how I need to calm these jumpy nerves!
I sat upon the pews towards the back
Close to the empty entrance of the church,
Where no one would perceive my agitation.                         (50)

Here I sat wond'ring where he was right now,
My thoughts adrift within a churning sea
Of doubts and fears and memories of him
Upon the fateful day he left the port
On such a lovely January dawn.
Indeed it would have made the proper scene
For Shakespeare's Winter's Tale but with a clear ******
Distinction: when he said his last goodbye, 
He also took my happiness and left
Me here alone to brood upon his safety,                         (60)
Turning a comedy of problems to
A slow unending strain of sheer suspense
And bitter-sweet contentment. Ah, I still
Remember it as though the passing months
And days and hours have yet to dull the strength
Of memory. That day, the biting cold
Of winter 'gan to lull with spells of warmth
Blowing in gentle zephyrs from the coastal *******
Dunes, melting snow and ice upon the chilly
Banks of the Dordrecht south of Rotterdam ********                         (70)
Right where the hulking trading ships are moored,
With Our Dear Lady Church o'erlooking it. *********
Right there was where my love and I last saw
Each other, there within the crowds of traders
And sailors, there beneath the bluest dome
Of heaven where the burning eye of God
Himself looks down upon us mortal beings;
So let the God Almighty be my witness
If memory may err. So bitter-sweet
It was to spend the morning there with him                         (80)
Upon the dock—so sweet because he stole
My love with promises of marriage after
He would return, and sweet because I gladly
Believed with all the insolence of youth,
And yet so bitter when the ship set sail
To catch the wind beyond the harbor's reach,
Waving my arms as it began to fade
Away beyond the farthest reach of sight,
And all the while, the warmth imparted from
His parting kiss still ling'ring on my lips—                         (90)

"Miranda," said a voice, and turning there
I saw Amelia bidding me to come
And headed over whence she said, concerned,
"For God's sake, stop your worrying and just
Look forward to the celebration that's
To come; not often do occasions such
As this befall a woman like yourself."

"I know," I said, "and yet I cannot help
But wonder with a dreading heart when he
Will moor his ship for good; I sometimes wish                         (100)
He were a prince with land and property
And not a fearless tradesman, captaining
A ship o'er sea to sea from port to port."

She looked at me with cheerful eyes and smiled,
Taking me by the hand and whisp'ring close,
"For women like ourselves, a prince is but
A frog in fancy clothes, and even heads
Of state would come and go with changing winds
Like Holy Roman Charles the Fifth of Spain; **********
True men of worth are hard to find these days,                         (110)
But you have fortune on your side. Few men,
If any still exist upon this earth,
Possess the strength and courage with the sense
And tenderness of your sweet Vander Fokke.
In that alone, I envy you just like
The many other women married to
Their counts and lords and princes, even kings!"

To this I simpered, knowing her too well:
"This coming from a lady with a taste
For roguish men? Whene'er I go about,                         (120)
I hear you take to every would-be Juan ***********
Or Romeo you see! Now that is not ************
Becoming of a lady as yourself—"

"Lies, all of those are lies!" she remonstrated,
Blushing the tell-tale signs of indiscretion
As everyone within the congregation
That was engaged in liturgy now turned
Their heads in our direction; we just smiled
And said our most sincere apologies;
This seemed to mollify the lot that shrugged                         (130)
It off and recommenced their pray'rs; and so
Did we in lower voices more discreet.

But soon we whispered on and whiled the time
Away in secret blasphemies of rumored
Scandals of love between the famous persons
Of this corrupted age, amid the words
Of liturgy resounding from the alter,
Until the services were done and mass
Had ended with the chanting of the choir.
We talked a little ways out through the doors                         (140)
Of agèd oak and said our fond farewells
Before we climbed into our carriages
And rode our sep'rate ways until next time.

* * * * * * *

Past all the shops and residential buildings
Heading into the country side, the streets
Of cobbled stones gave way to roads of dirt.
A look beyond the confines of my coach
Brought some relief to my exhausted mind
To see my country waking from the sleep
Of winter. All around were endless fields                         (150)
Of budding grain o'er low and gently rolling
Hills carpeting the ground, and interspersed
Between were farmers tilling land and tending
Unto their yield of crop and grazing cattle;
And here and there, the towns and hamlets hugged
The gorgeous contours of the land and framed
The underskirts that hem the lustrous blue
Of sky like fringe upon a dress; from time
To time I even spied the windmills still
Inert like giant statues 'gainst a wall                         (160)
Of blooming shrubbery; all this and more
Was cause enough to calm my worried state.

And yet no sooner had these pleasant things
Relieved me to complacency and ease
When the first tingles of unease began
To settle on me, when so many things
Peculiar to the sense of premonition
Filled me with dread. And so I urged the coachman
To make all haste towards my home; and when
I reached the grounds of my abode and saw                         (170)
Th' unhappy state of house and home, I knew
That somehow something happened to him on
The sea, but what I could not bear to know;
The mind is willing, yet the heart is weak.
E'en so, I bounded off the carriage ere
The coachman even slowed and ran my way
Across the walkway leading to my house
And passed the entrance where the dispatch horse
Was reined, then through the front doors I beheld
My father turning 'round to me with such                         (180)
An angry face the likes I had not seen
Before, beholding in his hand a letter
The dispatch handed him. The dispatch then
Resumed his duties as he walked on out.

"Miranda," said the master of the house,
"You cannot simply storm your way in here
As though you were the mistress of this house
Already! Actions such as that would shame
Me if some other company were here!"

"The letter," I implored with gravity                         (190)
That took my angry father by surprise,
That he at once looked o'er the parchment folded
In hand and looked at me once more, then opened
It, read the letter in grave silence to
Himself when all at once his anger faded,
Replaced with grave expression, mournful eyes.
Then all at once, my world had changed fore'er,
Although I know not how, nor want to know,
Nor could I voice objection, nor escape;
So filled with dread was I to know the truth.                         (200)

"The news is not a good one, I'm afraid,"
My father said, which filled my heart with horror.
"Dear Phillip Vander Fokke is lost at sea
Somewhere between Cape Point and Cape of Good *************
Hope during stormy weather—wait, Miranda!"

Now pacing to and fro in agitation,
My hands now clasped around my head in fits
Of sheer insanity and grief, I screamed
WIth all the ferrel passion of th' insane:
"This cannot be, this cannot be! They lie!                         (210)
The world is full of lies, because they're liars,
Ordained to do the duty of the Devil
In sick conspiracy against me! No!
They lie, they lie, they lie, for God shall prove
Them so, shall prove them wrong—oh, damn them! God—"
And here, I lost all sense that once belonged
To me, my words becoming incoherent,
A string of broken syllables and screams.

Whatever else had happened, I knew not
But only felt the strongest sickest urge                         (220)
To let it out, to break the mirror of
My grief with screams and fling about the broken
Shards in my rage. Oh, would I were to faint
Into the sweet release of sleep, perchance
To sleep and never wake to see the day,
Perchance to slumber for eternity
Within the cushioned folds of quiet night
And be united with my love in death;
Alas! for no such sweet repose I found,
But only found relief in bitter tears                         (230)
When I collapsed upon my knees, my father
Embracing me as I cried on his shoulder.
What God, if God there be, could be so cruel?
The week that should have presaged his return
With wedding bells now tolled the knell of fate
Much worse than death, my love now lost at sea!

(To be continued...)

A/N: I bet your eyes are bulging out of their sockets right now. Anyway, as you can see, I used a more flexible version of blank verse, reversing the first foot of sevral lines and adding femminine syllables at the ends of many of my lines. And though epics usually start out with an invocation, I've seen it delayed to a later canto. See Dante's Divine Comedy for an example. Also, epics can be divided up into books, parts, cantos, fits, chapters, songs, sections...etc. I just chose cantos because it sounds cool. This canto turned out to be much longer than I thought it would be. This beats the the length of my first epic attempt by about thirty lines. Hope you enjoyed it. ( ^_^ )

* Zederik = (n.) A town in South Holland.
** Rotterdam/Amsterdam = (n.) Major cities in Holland.
*** Twelve Year's Truce = (n.) (1609-1619) A truce between the Habsburg rulers of Spain and the Southern Netherlands and the Dutch Republic.
**** Johan van Oldenbarnevelt = (n.) (1547-1619) A Dutch statesman who played an important role in the Dutch struggle for independence from Spain in 1568-1609.
***** Phillip Vander Fokke = (n.) Based on Bernard Fokke, the 17th-century Frisian-born captain for the Dutch East India Company, renowned for the uncanny speed of his trips from Holland to Java.
****** A Winter's Tale = (n.) One of William Shakespeare's comedies.
******* Zephyr = (n.) A warm gentle wind.
******** Dordrecht = (n.) The fourth largest city in South Holland and is the the largest and most important city in Drechtsteden.
********* Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe-Kerk/Our Dear Lady Church = (n.) (1285-1470) An old church overlooking the many canals of the New Harbor in Dordrecht.
********** Holy Roman Emperor Charles V = (n.) Ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication 1556.
*********** Don Juan = (n.) A legendary, fictional libertine whose story has been told many times by many authors.
************ Romeo = (n.) From William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
************* Cape Point & Cape of Good Hope = (n.) Two capes at the southwestern tip of Africa, said to be the place where the Flying Dutchman was first seen.

Meter: Iambic pentameter
Rhyme: Blank verse