Draco

This is my first sestina.

"Hear ye! Oh hear ye!", the king's herald cried.
"Draco the Dragon's again on the wing!
Gather ye archers! Ye knights and the rest!
For soon he will fly down onto our land
Landing his gem-dripping bulk on our grass
After roasting our livestock from up in the sky!"

Draco the mighty did soar through the sky.
In fear, the poor farmers and villagers cried.
They ran for the bare rock without any grass
And hid from the shadows cast by the wing.
But soon the great dragon did come to land--
Eating three cattle and burning the rest.

The sorcerer vowed that wouldn't take rest
Till the dragon no longer could take to the sky
So he studied his lore as he wandered the land
"At last I've discovered the answer!" he cried
"With a potion of dragon's bane we'll clip his wing--
His vast bulk will topple him, dead, on the grass!"

He mixed his concoction with tar and elf grass
The potion that would bring the dragon to rest
"Should poison-tipped arrow just puncture a wing
The weight of him falling from out of the sky
Will surely be deadly!" the sorcerer cried.
So for the best archers they scoured the land

Sweet Meridyth was the best shot in the land
She could fell any beast that crawled through the grass
"Oh help kill this monster!" the people all cried.
You are the best archer, above all the rest."
She waited till Draco once more filled the sky
And took careful aim for his large flapping wing

One arrow pierced the draconian wing
The dragon was screaming and soon fell to land
Diamond and rubies dropped from the sky
Ringlets of mist danced with the grass
Draco's last breath before eternal rest
"I've slain the dragon," Sweet Meridyth cried!

"I wounded it's wing and it fell to the land!"
"Draco's dead!" they all cried as they danced on the grass.
The dragon that menaced the sky laid to rest.

Reviews

[W.k.kortas]

Sestina is a brutal form--it's painfully restrictive, and those restrictions make it difficult to maintain thematic or narrative continuity. This is very nicely done--it's so natural, so unforced that I wouldn't have noticed it was a sestina if you hadn't mentioned it. Fine, fine piece of writing.