Oh Princess, tell me my question;
Is your parent from Beautiful's City,
Or where you born in Gorgeous' station?
For you're dark and indeed very pretty.
Tell me, were you bathed in silver water,
And your teeth carved from a circled moon?
Or your eyeballs from stars shown at winter?
For I think o'your face all night to noon.
Please Lady, who taught you how to sing,
In the heavens or the feminine phoenix?
Is it angels roving earth without wing,
Or the bird that chips early before six?
Oh please! Tell me, are you someone's queen,
Or ll y'permit us to roll like lovely twin?
Poet:
Alabi Oluwatimilehin
BabyLawyer
INTRODUCTION
The poem is a fourteen line sonnet with the subject matter of love. It is a Shakespearean sonnet, not because it was written during the shakespearean period but because it adopts the Shakespearean rhyme scheme with 3 quatrains and an heroic couplet. i.e ABAB/CDCD/EFEF/GG.
LINE 1-4
In the first line of the poem, through the effect of apostrophe, the persona addresses a Princess who isn't physically present, telling her to answer some questions bothering him. This is because he his curious about the Princess' immense beauty. Although the lady is not a princess, he still calls her princess because since ancient times and till now, princess are known to be pretty.
The poet convert two qualities (Beauty and Gorgeous) to be an existing place to show the Persona's curiosity about the Princess.
So, the Persona asks if the Princess' parent grew in a city called Beautiful, or if the Princess was born a place called Gorgeous. Though she is dark, she is still very beautiful.
Here, while the word 'dark' tells the complexion of the princess, it also symbolises the black race (an african lady). Hence, the poem can refer to a fair or dark in complexion lady who is only an african or african akin.
LINE 5-8
The curious persona furthers to adore the Princess' face by questioning if she was bathed in silver water because her beauty is very natural, and silver, are gems that are naturally precious and nice. He commends the Princess' teeth which looks very white and bright like a full blown moon. He also get fascinated about the Princess' eyeballs which to him are like winter stars which are always brighter than any other season.
LINE 9-12
The Persona shifts from the face to the admiration of the sonorous voice she sings with. The persona asks if angels in heaven or angels on earth had taught her how to sing.
This question follows the christian believe that Angels sings to God in the heavens in a very magnificent manner.
Still not satisfied, he asks if she had learn her good voicing from the Phoenix, an ancient beautiful bird especially with the colour red (wine) and purple , which chirps in the morning before full dawn.
LINE 13-14
Finally, the persona journeys from being curious about the beauty of the princess into proposing a love relationship with her if she isn't engage with anyone.. He also propose that they should start with rolling like twins i.e as friends or lovely siblings where they can become very fond of themselves before they get married.
