Paudeen
In the short poem “Paudeen” the speaker is walking around, initially very angry at a shopkeeper who is perceived as being very stupid and spiteful. However, hearing two birds exchange cries unexpectedly make them change their mind and they end the poem with the realization that everyone is equally beautiful before God.
Player Queen
In the poem “Player Queen” the speaker recounts how her mother had a premonition that the speaker would one day become a queen. In the first stanza the speaker sets the scene and describes how her mother admired the speaker as a young baby, even making her a golden cradle to lay in.
For the second, third and fourth stanzas, the mother recounts how the speaker’s father had to leave them just as she was to go into labor. While speaking, she is sewing something for her new-born daughter that is made of gold and silver. The mother becomes very sad, because she has had a vision that the speaker would become a queen as well as receiving a sign during the speaker’s conception.
In the final stanza, the speaker concludes that naturally her mother believed these signs and visions and therefore dressed and decorated her daughter with gold.
Fallen Majesty
In the poem “Fallen Majesty” the speaker, an aging poet, chronicles the declining youth and beauty of their queen.
With the first stanza, the speaker establishes that the queen was once so beautiful and majestic that she drew big crowds to wherever she went. However, this, according to the speaker, is long gone and her appearance has diminished so much that even very old eyes can see the difference. Yet, the speaker laments that he is the only one admitting this.
In the second stanza, the speaker further describes the aging queen as kind and sweet, with a face whose wrinkles show that she has led a happy life. And while a crowd is still forming around her on the streets, the speaker mourns that they will never know how beautiful she actually used to be, as no one recorded any changes and therefore the younger crowd will believe that she always looked the way she does now.
