Villanelle for Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn Files visitor, Jennifer Morrison, has written a beautiful poem about Anne Boleyn which she wanted to share with everyone here:-

Villanelle for Anne Boleyn


Circa regna tonat—her echo,
Faint beneath the sound of sword to bone:
Defiled is my name full sore

Through cruel spite and false report;
Twice postponed, not yet past her pains.
Circa regna tonat, a mother’s tear

At a daughter’s loss, at the crownless
Bastard daughter of a bastard
king. Defiled is my name full sore—

But not cowed. Not cowed.
Thankfully, Master Kingston, I have a little neck–
Her nervous laugh, circa regna tonat,

Wrapped in red and ermine.
Unto my fame a mortal wound—
Defiled is my name full sore,

But every inch a queen.
For wrongly ye judge of me—
Defiled is my name full sore,

Her echo, circa regna tonat.

~by Jennifer Morrison

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