A Summer Rose

A Summer Rose

Into the garden of laurel and yew
Right hand to walls, labyrinth perfection
May heavens awash in robin's egg blue
Dog star blood, King's collection

On Tower Green the scaffold rests
Henchman's eyes reflect an arbour
His blow, a simple arrow chest
Fair lady's final harbour

A little neck, sword honed in Calais
Tudor Queen's resigned repose
Hever visions, intaglio maze
Wyatt's tears mourn a Summer rose

* Queen Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII, and mother of Elizabeth I, was beheaded 19 MAY 1536 after being found guilty of numerous trumped up charges. A special swordsman from Calais was brought to London for the execution. While awaiting her fate Queen Anne made the remark she "has only a little neck". She was buried in a simple arrow chest in an unmarked grave in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula, next to the Tower Green. Under the reign of Queen Victoria, her body was identified and now lies marked beneath the marble floor. Her brother George, her friend, musician Mark Smeaten, Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston and William Brereton were also beheaded. Her friend and former lover Thomas Wyatt wrote poetry to Anne. Hever Castle was her childhood home.