In the third stanza of “Speak, Parrot” by John Skelton, you’ll find these lines : “With my bekė bent, my little wanton eye,/ My feathers fresh as is the emerald green,/About my neck a circulet like the rich ruby,/ my little leggės, my feet both feat and clean,/ I am a minion to wait upon a queen…”
Amen to the little leggės.
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Parrot has another go at making sense of what is happening in the world that swirls and shudders around his cage. This time he makes use of a few religious images
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Instead of “shakes the bars” the author might just as well have written “wracks his brains” – a more conventional image, though equally physical a description. But since the parrot lives in a cage, it seemed fitting that he should do some violence to that, instead of to himself.
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This stanza offers some general thoughts on leadership and the part it plays – or fails to play. But it is also based on the specific image of the UK House of Commons, in which the Party of Government and the Party of Opposition face one another across the aisle. Neither of the present leaders merit the position they hold. In effect, they were appointed by, and are symptoms of, the nation’s present disorientation.
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The key-word here seemed to be “constructions.” We construct so much – thoughts, arguments, theories and views, no less than buildings, machines, policies, laws and stories…
Yet do we pause and check very carefully the materials used for those constructions ? Are they sound ? Are the foundations on which they are based trustworthy, honest ? Is their true purpose open or hidden ?
If unsound, expect the worst of everything that follows.
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There was a strange pause in Brexit proceedings at around the time this stanza was written. May asked the EU for another extension and obtained it, amid outrage from the Tory grass-roots and right-wing. The right wing newspapers began to change the subject. Some writers began talking cautiously about Brexit having “failed.” Might that really be possible ? If so, had it taught us anything ? In the meantime, I moved house and found myself in a place I loved immediately.
The “Bird of Paradise” reference takes us back to the original source and inspiration of this collection of rhyme royal stanzas. In his “Speak Parrot” poem, John Skelton was very clear that his parrot was exactly that : a bird of paradise, brought from that exotic place far away by recent explorers in small wooden ships. The parrot would have been a rare and startling creature in England in those days.
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