deathspell (poem)

something precious now is lost.

Tristan and Isolde (Death) by Rogelio de Egusquiza (1910)

Note: If you are interested in reading the poem of this post only, I have no hard feelings about that and you are free to scroll past my lengthy expositive rambling!

It is extremely easy to fall into the trap of centering Arthurian women’s stories around their love for men. I have already done so in a couple of the poems in this series. However, there are deeper and more complex relationships to explore in many of these tales and it is important to me that I do so. One of these stories with multiple, complicated relationships is the tragic story of Tristan and Iseult (sometimes spelled Isolde)

The story of Tristan and Iseult is a 12th century story of Celtic origin told and written in many varities and languages. For my background reading (I do this writing every poem, which is why this series is moving quite slowly), I selected a translation of J. Bédier’s, a French medievalist, called The Romance of Tristan and Iseult.

The main elements of this story that are relevant to today’s poem are that Iseult is promised to be married to King Mark after Tristan defeats a dragon on Mark’s behalf. Before she sets sail, Iseult’s mother secretly concots a love potion for Iseult as a wedding gift and trusts it to Iseult’s friend and handmaid, Brangaine. Braingaine is instructed to to pour the potion for Mark and Iseult on their wedding night. Unfortunately, Iseult and Tristan both unknowingly and accidentally ingest the potion and fall deeply into a dangerous love affair that ultimately results in both of their deaths. There is much more to this story including spies, a planned execution, lepers, and another Iseuld, but if you want more details I would reccommend reading the entire romance yourself.

Returning to the idea of relationships beyond the romantic, I decided I wanted to approach this story from the perspective of Iseult’s mother. I was inspired to do so after reading “EZ IST IR G’ARTER VON MIR: Queen Isolde and Princess Isolde in Gottfried Von Straussburg’s Tristan and Iseult” by Ann Marie Rasmussen (included in Arthurian Women edited by Thelma S Fenster).

Rasmussen writes:

“It means that Queen Isolde wants her daughter’s fate to replicate her own not just sentimentally, but also politically. It means that Queen Isolde intends not just that love find a place in the arranged marriage…but that a Queen’s political power find a place in her daughter’s marriage. In other words, this epic is not only about romantic love, not only about male power struggles, but also about a noblewomen’s knowledge of her limited right to political power, and her maniuplation of available resources. The mother’s gift of the love potion meant that while acquiescing in her daughter’s (and her own) instrumental function, Queen Isolde still desires to give her daughter a measure of control over it.” (p. 49)

In short, Queen Isolde (Isolde’s mother, confusing, I know) hopes that through this love potion her daughter finds both love and control to the extent that a woman can have control during this time. It is an act of love, yes, but also a calculated move to undermine patriarchal control.

Lastly, I feel I should mention that I wrote this poem as a haibun (a form I have previously written in and discussed in a post I currently have taken down due to some pending literary submissions). I didn’t have a specific reason for this other than the poem came out this way while I was writing it; however, upon deeper reflection, I think the insertion of the haikus reflect deep regret and the ache of hindsight. I only broke the haiku format in the last stanze for the purpose of repition in the final two lines.

Note: I may, at a later time, revisit this story either from the perspective of Brangaine or Iseult of the White Hands (yes, there’s another Iseult), but I have not yet decided!

“Child, it is yours to go with Iseult to King Mark’s country, for you love her with a faithful love. Take then this pitcher and remember well my words. Hide it so that no eye shall see nor no lip go near it: but when the wedding night has come and that moment in which the wedded are left alone, pour this essenced wine into a cup and offer it to King Mark and to Iseult his queen. Oh! Take all care, my child, that they alone shall taste this brew. For this is its power: they who drink of it together love each other with their every single sense and with their every thought, forever, in life and in death.” (from The Romance of Tristan and Iseult, Part the First: The Philtre).

deathspell

i cannot unbind
what was already
bound to be
by the will of men.
never was it
in the capacity
of my given power.
only kings & god
dictate what the future
brings to us all.

across the black sea,
something precious now is lost
forever to me.

your cries of anguish,
your desire for death
rather than start anew
deepened the fault lines
of my heart.
never could i reach
into any timeline and
grant you true freedom,
but by fate’s hand,
i could pour from
my vial the gift
of mercy.

essenced desire,
forever in life and death.
love, eternally.

my cursed foresight
could not predict
that a gift intended
with the purest promise
of passion and power
could be the envenomation
of a fatal affair
when tasted by
the wrong tongue.

two lovers death-drunk.
destined for ruination;
three fragmented hearts.

the heart alone is
not enough to
save us from
the worst of
ourselves.
in love-throes,
we drown
by the jealous hands
and black sails
of others’ hearts.

daughter, forgive me,
i only wanted your peace.
i only wanted your life.

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Other poems in this series:

oathbreaker (poem)

lunete (poem)

kingmaker (poem)

elaine (poem)

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