Chevalier de Saint-Georges

[BobBradshaw]

Chevalier de Saint-Georges


  Hadn't their rival stares like the tips
  of their raised swords
  looked to wound?  And hadn't the Chevalier

  defeated the finest fencer
  from Rouen, standing up to his taunts
  as Boëssière’s mulatto?  

  After that, didn't the ladies  
  invite him into their salons
  to dance and flirt, his many talents

  like his dusky skin, rare
  in Paris?   His equestrian skills
  led to rumors of his ability

  to ride any mount he chose,
  but none of the gossip came as big
  a surprise as his violin playing.

  Even when Mozart showed up,
  wasn't he the finest violinist?  
  His stroking as clever and quick

  as his fencing strikes, the legendary  
  finishing of his thrusts
  as famous as the romances

  circling about him?  Was there anything
  the Chevalier de Saintes-Georges
  couldn't do?

  He even raised the first
  regiment of color, in "defense
  of the motherland".  

  Yet no lady would marry a mulatto.  
  Not even one who was welcomed
  in Marie-Antoinette's salon,

  accompanying her on violin
  as she played the clavier,
  their music blending together

  like the redolent scents
  one is graced with strolling
  together with the queen

  through the gardens
  of the Palace of Versailles--
  known for its art of perspective.

 Ah, how grateful they confessed
 --to be so alike, to share  
 so much in common!

[BobBradshaw]

Tweaked, since this poem didn't receive any comments....thx for any input

[CalebMurdock]

I think this is a fine poem, a very well written tribute to a man who was clearly remarkable. I wasn't aware of him (not being well educated in French history), but he sounds like an interesting and accomplished person, someone definitely to admire.

If you didn't get a comment before, it was probably because of the learning curve of familiarizing one's self with Chevalier. (After all, we are writing in English in another country from where the protagonist lived.) Indeed, I admire you for writing about someone else, as that is difficult for me and many poets. Being somewhat narcissistic, I often can't see past my own skin.

Nicely done.

[BobBradshaw]

Thanks, Caleb

[Billy]

Worthy and timely choice of biographic poem, written with seeming ease to read with grace and subtlety.

[BobBradshaw]

Thank you, Billy. I appreciate it.