Epithalamium Poem by William F Dougherty

Epithalamium

Rating: 4.8


(For Cynthia Ann Dougherty)

Towing your tattered doll,
you would fetch your storybook
and scale my knees to hear
how Sleeping Beauty woke.
My voice, to match a tale,
grated a giant's roar
or whispered of lamp or bean
against your ash-blonde hair.

You clapped each tidy ending,
after fidgeting through the plot:
your smile—at rescue, prince,
embrace—bloomed at the thought.
In that time of once upon,
legend let fall the truth
that a princess is her feeling:
kind words keep a lovely mouth.

I celebrate that now
in your own story's flush,
toss rice at your ivory gown
and raise a father's wish.
Ever-afters recede in mist,
but for the princess shining here
my cheer is plain and easy:
may your storybook endure.


[Pub. in Caduceus, Yale U. Press,2013]

Friday, February 11, 2011
Topic(s) of this poem: child,childhood ,daughter,marriage,wedding
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
William F. Dougherty 09 February 2013

Published in Caduceus, Yale U. Press,2013.

2 0 Reply
Jim Hogg 23 October 2012

The stitching and unstitching all unseen. Adam was never this blessed.

0 0 Reply
Captain Cur 09 June 2012

Yes, may they live happily ever after. Wonderful poem about a daughter, as they are all princesses and precious in a father's life.

1 0 Reply
William F Dougherty 16 April 2012

Yes. Daughter's daughter also recently married.

1 0 Reply
Hazel Connelly 06 November 2011

Lovely. I take it this is about your daughter. Hazel

0 0 Reply
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