Scene from the French Reign Of Terror

[Frank E Gibbard]

The blade flashed on a scaffold bearing one of Man's deadliest designs

M. Citizen Robespierre's visage looked up from the basket's confines

At Madame la Guillotine, shared equally with his head still oozing blood,

Having been given liberty from his corporeal parts. The sickening thud

Of his body hardly stirred the tricoteuses who scarcely dropped a stitch

But waved their needles in triumph at the revolutionary's terminal twitch.

A mob's macabre celebration and bitter voice rose as he slumped to earth,

His last part in an orgy of terror to which his fraternity had freely given birth.

[tonyv]

I'm catching up on enjoying some work that has been posted here of late, and this is another one that does not fail to impress. A terrific subject and, as always, a rich vocabulary are matched in a verse that's just in time ... for Halloween. Loved it.

 

Tony

[dedalus]

Rotten lot those Frogs!

Wish they had beaten NZ all the same.

[Benjamin]

I tried to ignore my French surname and ancestry as I read this one Frank:-) Vivid recollections of Danton, Robespierre and Marat drummed into us as schoolboys... 'The Reign of Terror' and images immortalised by Dickens and Orczy etc. in didactic books that are probably seldom read any more. Well done. G.

[David W. Parsley]

Nice work, Frank. Halloween received its due on PMO, alright!

 

- Dave