Menolly’s Fire Lizard Song by Anne McCaffery

Menolly’s Fire Lizard Song

The little queen, all golden
Flew at the sea.
To keep it back,
To turn it back
She flew forth bravely.

As she attacked the sea in rage
A holderman came nigh
Along the sand
Fishnet in hand
And saw the queen midsky.

He stared at her in wonder
For often he'd been told
That such as she
Could never be
Who hovered there, bright gold.

He saw her plight and quickly
He looked up the cliff he faced
And saw a cave
Above the wave
In which her eggs he placed.

The little queen all golden
Upon his shoulder stood
Her eyes all blue
Glowed of her true
Undying gratitude.
--Anne McCaffery

I like this poem for mostly sentimental reasons. Looking at it from a purely critical standpoint, it's adequate, but there's really nothing elegant about it. There's no perfect turn of phrase, no metaphor, no alliteration etc. All the same, I like it.

Like I said, it's mostly for sentimental reasons. I really loved the Pern books, and I think I identified with Menolly more than with almost any other character I was reading about at the time. Here's a sad, misunderstood, teen aged girl who's good at running and teaching children. She has self-esteem issues that are compounded by having to deal with spiteful girls her own age. Besides that, she's good at singing. I will admit that my parents were nicer than hers, but she got to go off riding Dragons and had a whole flock of Fire Lizards by the end of the story, so that almost makes up for it.