unconfidante but for
ravens and crows
campfires and ghosts
gone blind due to reading
gone silent for song
conspiracy and murder
have taken all tongue
broken fingerbones
have stolen all tone
shh, now childe
sleep within sedges at
green gone wild
sedges
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10 responses to “sedges”
The mention of sedge always puts me in mind of the Battle of Sedgemoor, the Monmouth Rebellion and the Bloody Assizes. Other words you use here also suggest that Battle, the ghosts left behind, the silence of the night before action and so forth. We used to drive through the area to visit family, and I was always very aware of the history of the place. Thanks for the memories. 😊
Glad I could trigger those kinds of memories. I’ll have to look into those historic references, as I have no context for them. I’m afraid I have to admit my knowledge of history tends to skew in other directions and chases different flavors. 🙂
No problem, history was my thing for years. Basically in 1685 King Charles II died without legitimate issue, to be succeeded by his brother as James II. James was a Catholic so the people didn’t want him, and Charles eldesst illegitimate son the protestant Duke of Monmouth came over from Holland (exiled there to stay away from James, who hated his pretensions to the throne) to try to take the throne. the West Country rose behind Monmouth, = The Monmouth Rebellions. It took place around Somerset, where Sedgemoor is. The Duke was defeated and tried to escape, but was apprehended in a ditch on Sedgemoor and executed by James – took about 7 blows of the axe to kill him, I recall. The ‘Bloody Assizes’ which took place thereafter were held by the infamous Judge Jeffries, who executed many and sent others as white slaves to the West Indies. Hence the historic significance of Sedgemoor, and your poetic references to campfires, ghosts and conspiracy all help the idea of the battle. Free UK history lesson lol! 🙂
Thanks. I had fully intended to look it up after I was done with work, but you saved me the effort 🙂 My interest in royal history has been mostly passing, but we can write that off as being an American, I expect. I have had a greater affinity for my own country’s going-ons, especially with respect to the First Nations/First People.
Seven is a magic number. I wonder if it is an accurate count or an embellishment to serve a different purpose.
A lot of my early reading was of British history, some of which had an indirect on US history. James II, who executed Monmouth, was himself kicked out after a few years because he was trying to make the country Catholic again and we weren’t having it. He escaped into exile in France, but later returned via Ireland to try to reclaim the throne from his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange. That resulted in the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland. William won, the Protestants there started persecuting the Catholics, many of whom started crossing the pond to live in the USA – and they carried on for many years, hence a sizeable Irish population. Not sure the 7 strokes was used as a magic sense, it was pretty grim by all accounts. 😐
I know 🙂. My Irish Catholic background was probably a result of that very migration now that I have discovered my family immigrated much earlier than I had thought before I did all my digging around on that side of the family.
I like finding those kinds of connections, and now my husband is so deeply into researching both
our family trees he’s finding things that aren’t so clear. I seem to remember that you’ve found it rathet hard to discover certain things. Still makes it fascinating however 🙂
The Irish side is pretty straight forward and easily followed. It’s the potential Norwegian/Finnish/Sámi side that is harder to dig into due to lack of records and likely false assumed names by my grandfather. And zero near-relation DNA matches from that side…
It’s very strange how these things work out. G can’t find anything much on his father’s side, although there’s a load on his mother’s side – and nobody has assumed any false names there. Given that his father wasn’t interested in ancestry, we can only assume that no living distant relatives have done anything either, so there’s nothing much to find. Given how tracked etc we are in this digital age, it’s interesting to see how people back then could vanish into the woodwork if they so wished. I’ve got a few black sheep back up my tree who’ve left a few mysteries that we can only guess at the solution for. Best of luck with your continuing search. 🙂