Bailey and Ailynn and the Good Queen of Ulster

So, act one of "Bailey and Ailynn: There Will be Blood" is done. Now I am almost halfway done with act two. I like to move the story forward with conflict and choices and echoes, sometimes, from earlier materials. In act one, Bailey's mother, The Good Queen of Ulster, recited a Pantoum and I'm using her with a Pantoum again in act two. 

Pantoums don't rhyme. They basically can't rhyme because they use a repeating-line structure that give each repeat of the line a different context, and so, a different meaning. 

At the start of this scene, Bailey and his cousin Rory, sneak out of the castle. The Good Queen follows them, and from the shadows, overhears the two young men planning to go find Bailey's true love, Ailynn of the South. After the men ride into the night, the Good Queen laments.

Bailey's mother, the Good Queen of Ulster, 

THE GOOD QUEEN OF ULSTER

What do I feel, as I watch him ride away?

He is a man now, and full of his own plans.

He neither asks my leave, nor needs my advice.

At least not till he is a little older.

He is a man now, and full of his own plans.

I cannot even hold him to say goodbye.

At least not till he is a little older.

And what kind of mother worries deep into the night?

I cannot even hold him to say goodbye.

And why would I? He is a king, or one day will be.

And what kind of mother worries deep into the night?

Let him make his own mistakes.

And why would I? He is a king, or one day will be.

Is every mother a queen? All of them like me?

Let him make his own mistakes.

Do all parents succeed only by blind luck and the kindness of strangers?

Is every mother a queen? All of them like me?

The cold darkness has a special bite tonight.

Do all parents succeed only by blind luck and the kindness of strangers?

Dread echoes fill my heart--past deeds that cannot be undone.

The cold darkness has a special bite tonight.

Have I wronged him? Failed him?

Dread echoes fill my heart--past deeds that cannot be undone.

Have I truly done all I could to keep him safe?

Have I wronged him? Failed him?

If a king may fall, how much more every man?

Have I truly done all I could to keep him safe?

No. No. No. Thrice no.

If a king may fall, how much more every man?

I beg thee, Beauties of the Night, guard!

No. No. No. Thrice no.

Take away this vision that rattles my soul!

I bid thee, Beauties of the Night, guard!

To love is to lose, but does it have to be every day?

Take away this vision that rattles my soul!

So many questions, and the night is silent.

To love is to lose, but does it have to be every day?

What do I feel, as I watch him ride away?

So many questions, and the night is silent.

At least not till he is a little older. 

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