Lady Godiva: She Clothed in Golden Hair

[Dark Muse]

Lady Godiva: She Clothed in Golden Hair

There touched upon her skin
the spreading warmth
of noon day sun
to embrace her as
she faced the day
in full glory of her splendor.

Dove white flesh
upon full display
as she rode with a
stallion beneath her knees
through the streets
she passes with a wave
to adoring fans who
watch the majestic
mortal goddess.

Her only offered covering
the cascading veil of her
rose-gold hair, which
falls in waves against
the most delicate of
her private treasures.

Since the dawn of Eve
there has never been a
purer nudity, so chaste
was she in her seeming
immodesty.

She stripped away
her robes and vestments
and tossed aside the
gifts of clothes and adornments
bestowed by her husband
to make a statement against
his policy.

So she rode for all to
see her simple naked purity
as one of the earliest protests
demonstrated in history.

[Hawkman]

Hi Muse As always you conjour a graphic image but beware...

"as she rode with a
stallion beneath her knees"

in context borders on the comic but that may be your intent.

"She stripped away
her robes and vestments
and tossed aside the
gifts of clothes and adornments
bestowed by her husband
to make a statement against
his policy."

I feel you have lost the music of the rest of the poem here, the rhythm stumbles a bit but on the whole, a pleaser, thanks. H

[AuntShecky]

Excellent choice of subject matter! One wonders if she were a mere legend, but we'd like to think that this was a factual historical incident.

The first couple paragraphs of your piece reminded me of the delightfully expressive term the Wiccans use for their appearance in rituals. Reportedly they call their state of (un)dress "sky-clad." (The late, great Johnny Carson used to call nudity a cappella.)

Overall, the piece is very well done, except for the final two stanzas or "strophes" which perhaps explain too much and thus could use more showing and less telling.

I continue to enjoy reading all of your postings, with their compelling subject matter.

[Dark Muse]

Thank you, I was inspired to write this when I was contemplating of John Collier's painting of Lady Godiva and the thought suddenly occurred to me that I did not know of a single poem about Godiva, I did not think it possible that none could exist so I did some research and found there have been a few including one by Tennyson, but it seems for whatever reason Godiva poems are not as well known, or popular, or famous as poems about other historic or legendary ladies.

As a pagan I did want to capture the idea of nudity as something that has a pureness of innocence to it, and I really liked Tennyson's use of the word chaste to refer to it, as chaste and nudity are two things not usually paired together.

There was meant to be a sort of playfulness reflected in the poem, as while on the one hand I respect her impendence and the boldness of her actions as a way to counter which she felt was an unjust policy against the people, there is also something a bit comical in the thought of a woman parading around naked to spite her husband into doing the right thing.

[Hawkman]

I'm fairly certain there is a statue of her on horseback in Coventry. - H

[AuntShecky]

Thank you, I was inspired to write this when I was contemplating of John Collier's painting of Lady Godiva .

Same John Collier as the novelist ("His Monkey Wife") who wrote so many scripts for Hitchcock?

[Dark Muse]

John Collier the Pre-Raphealite painter

if you are currious here is an image of the painting in question

http://www.artmagick.com/images/content/collier/med/collier8.jpg