A King's Bones by Imogen McHugh
"The discovery of Richard, Duke of Gloucester’s remains beneath a Leicester car park is itself a bizarre addition to Shakespeare’s partisan caricature. Imogen McHugh’s ‘A King’s Bones’ will have little of the medieval demi -devil and a great deal of human frailty, compassion and pain. This Richard knows how to love, how to lose, is caged inside his body and his political role, manly but not inhumane. His language is a hybrid of the majestic and the vernacular, gathered in loose pentameters, often with Shakespearian resonance. But always more sinned against than sinning:
‘as plants curl towards light away from darkness,
I began to curve in upon myself’ (Skeleton)
The immediacy and bewilderment of the protagonist’s voice gives flesh and blood to the bones, gaining depth and range throughout the sequence, finally engaging the reader in an empathetic pact:
‘Far below I lie, an acorn curled in peacetime,
I am content to tell my tale over and over,
to the clay-like earth, to my bones.
To you.’ (King of the Car Park II)
‘as plants curl towards light away from darkness,
I began to curve in upon myself’ (Skeleton)
The immediacy and bewilderment of the protagonist’s voice gives flesh and blood to the bones, gaining depth and range throughout the sequence, finally engaging the reader in an empathetic pact:
‘Far below I lie, an acorn curled in peacetime,
I am content to tell my tale over and over,
to the clay-like earth, to my bones.
To you.’ (King of the Car Park II)
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