As Greek pauper Prince raised on German Jew brew:
“Seventy years as Pope you reigned recondite,
Never you’ll know the pain you caused all for a few!”

Le Chant Royal RECIPE: Poulet Roti - French Style - Ballade - Concluding Stanza


(Note: As you can see, I have taken certain liberties with the fixed form, but have always kept close to the spirit of the ballade’s form: rhyme, metre, stanza, envoi, and, now, concluding stanza addressed to an important royal personality. Exceptions are the introductory RECIPE - I and the extension of the FIVE eleven-line stanza to TEN.)

CONCLUDING STANZA

Now you have all seen how the French roast chicken
Not quite different, say, from British cuisine:
Lion-Heart Richard* lies with Jeanne d’Arc in Rouen
Not so different from other Royal spleen.
It matters little if powers visible
Go through motions where kings move invisible
Call it DEMOCRACY, call it what you like
Old shibboleths raise Gorgon heads still to strike
As Greek pauper Prince raised on German Jew brew:
“Seventy years as Pope you reigned recondite,
Never you’ll know the pain you caused all for a few!”

Sol de France franchi
Terre d’asile...psychiatr....
A-Dieu!


Notes:
*The “heart” of King Richard the Lion Heart is buried in the Rouen Cathedral - a stone’s throw from where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake - bombarded by the Allied Forces pilot who later let drop the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. (Ref. Cf article by Flint Whitlock on-line.)

(c) T. Wignesan - Paris, 2017