Not of normal Princess stock
But still of royal blood
She did not sit for needle work,
Played often in the mud
A distant Dukedom, not too large,
This little girl's birth place
A rough and tumble house of men,
Her brothers set the pace
When just a babe, Her mother died,
Her father unconsoled
Raised Her as he would a son,
A fighter brave and bold
With no concession to Her sex,
Her lack of stick and stones
She joined the boys in all they did,
In cuts and broken bones
Without a mother guiding Her
She didn't grow genteel
She learned to master men at arms,
She had a will of steel
You know, that girl could clean up good
Though it was all facade
She could not speak aloud in court
With ladies, she was awed
As often happens in these tales,
There was a Prince at hand
Whose mother thought it well past time
He started His own band
But He was loath to choose a mate
Who could not hunt and ride
He wanted someone strong and sweet
To stand up at His side
When out on hunt with Duke and sons,
He met the little Sister
She shot the biggest deer that day,
To celebrate, He kissed Her
He could not get her off His mind
But then He didn't try
His mother saw the change in Him
And wondered at the why
The Queen could not be out of step,
She had to know it all
She found the Prince's hunting ground
And paid the Duke a call
While touring through the castle
She made the Duke aware
The Prince was looking for a wife
To give the Crown an heir
The candidate must be elite
Be delicate, refined
She must have manners, be discrete,
Not as the coarser kind
The Girl was called to meet and sit
In converse with the Queen
Just in from traipsing in the woods
At least Her face was clean
The Queen was shocked and let it show
The Girl was unrefined
But there was something deep inside
The Queen had so divined
Without the proper tutelage
The Prince could lose His Bride
The Queen would have to undertake
To teach the Princess pride
Back at the castle of the King
The entourage returned
When Princess Girl was nested up
Her tatty clothes were burned
She grew up with no female friends
She had no courtly wiles
She'd never had a proper dress
Made in the latest styles
Through all the weeks and months ahead
The Queen kept Her in training
Soon came the day all waited for
With just one test remaining
The queen had filed Her rough spots down,
Taught her grace and polish
With the success of one more thing
All negatives abolish
The final Princess puzzle piece
Would She be fine enough
To feel what lesser women don't
Through piles of fluffy stuff
Twenty straw filled mattress ticks
And twenty filled with down
Were Her bed this last long night,
She got up with a frown
When asked about Her sleep last night
She said, "What sleep you say?
I felt the bed was filled with rocks
I had no place to lay!"
Behind Her hand, the Queen did smile
So no one else could see
She sent a waiting lady off
To get a single pea
The pea, the Queen had placed beneath
The bedding in the stack
The evidence of Princesshood
She wanted to give back
She had the pea encased in glass
And noised it all around
It wasn't rocks, but just the pea
She felt inside the mound
The Queen knew well the Princess Bride
Would not be long in court
Before She felt the need to hunt
And otherwise cavort
She also loved her Son enough
To make the pea a pendant
So if some eyed Her princessness,
The evidence would end it
The truth is, what one is inside
Is all one needs to be
And all it takes to prove it may
Be just a little pea
Richard Higley © Aug 2012