A Royal Tale

He couldn’t stop for death, tries everything:
Girls, music, violence, crazy displays
Of arrogance and fever. There are days
He hopes that immortality might bring
Some sort of peace, but goes on hankering
For more than peace. He’s living in a haze
Of wanting and accomplishment, a blaze
Of glory, a successful, worn out king.

He has as many children as he can,
Hoping some part of him might yet live on.
Some children die young. At least one is drawn
To hatred of her father, that odious man,
While three survive to wear the crown — his plan —
And all of them die without issue. Gone.