Castle Krake Poem by David Lewis Paget

I'd always wanted a castle, so
I bought one in the Spring.
It wasn't much of a castle,
Overgrown with everything,
Ivy covered the castle walls
There were trees on the battlements,
And bushes grew in the courtyard,
But I bought the place for cents.

They said it hadn't been lived in since
The days of Charles the First,
And Cromwell's troops had reduced it with
A mighty cannon burst.
The gatehouse lay in a ruin where
The Army stormed inside,
And hunted down the defenders there
Who, to a man, had died.

The women, hid in the kitchen there,
Eventually were caught,
The older ones had their throats cut,
But the young ones kept for sport,
And Lady May in her boudoir, she
Was seized by a Captain Clyne,
Who dragged her out by her hair, and said,
‘Not this one, she'll be mine! '

He ripped and clawed at her bodice till
She was exposed to view,
She screamed that he was an animal,
‘I'll never lie with you! '
He laughed and shackled her hands and feet
And he took his wicked will,
She sobbed to say he would have to pay
For the virgin blood he'd spilled.

‘I'll hunt you down like the cur you are,
I will follow you through time,
My downline will seek yours to kill
For vengeance will be mine.'
He laughed, but fate, it had lain in wait
When a pile of shattered stones,
That hung so perilous by the gate
Had crushed his evil bones.

I took delight in the story when
I purchased this ancient pile,
And sat in the ancient boudoir where
I was pensive, for a while.
So this was the place that it happened,
Just above a flagstoned stair,
The rape of an ancient beauty, that
Had seeped in the walls in there.

It took some months to clean up the place
Ripping out each bush and tree,
Till Castle Krake was taking shape
And making a home for me.
I slept up there in the boudoir
During those long, cold winter nights,
With only a blazing brazier
And a sputtering torch for lights.

One night I heard a commotion, it
Was down by the Castle Keep,
A sound, a clashing of soldiers,
I woke from a shallow sleep.
And then was a woman sobbing,
It echoed within the walls,
For soon she screamed, ‘I will hunt you down, '
As I lay there, quite appalled.

Since then, there have been accidents
Of masonry falls and such,
The brazier set my bed alight
I escaped by just a touch,
It's all to do with that Captain Clyne
And the curse of Lady May,
For Captain Clyne's in my mother's line
So I don't feel safe today.

6 May 2017