The Ice King

Shimmering, white and icy, snow falls
Clouding the sombre trees
Seeping into my clothes, my skin
Penetrating each part of me.

Then somewhere amidst the seething wind
From deep in the blizzard's heart
Behind the forest's ethereal facade,
the siren's melody starts.

The same mellifluous music,
Melancholy to mine ears
That gracefully transcends the piercing air
Awakening my dormant fears.

The singer is deep within these woods
He does not show his face
His song skims the wind like the snow itself
Coating all with its frosty lace.

The forest is his icy castle
Twisting pillars of emerald and white
With reams of cotton carpet below
Reflecting the sun's strangled light


My body trembles with each icy note
My mind tells me something is wrong
But my soul's trap'd in his Wintery Kingdom
A slave to the ice-King's song.


The blizzard seems to beckon "Come closer, child,"
And I start to walk, enraptured
While the snow bends around me with each bitter wind
Reminding me I am captured.

My breath shudders, a mist, in the icy air
As I follow the song with zeal
My heart beats faster with each step I take
Wondering what will soon be revealed.

And further into the forest I walk,
The cold seeping into my bone
To seek the singer of this melody
Sit by his glacial throne.

And deeper and deeper I wander,
My skin glowing rouge'd and white
As the sun dips away with her final warning
Giving way to night.

Emerging from a veil of snowfall
The King himself appears,
With cold grey eyes and purple-hued lips
Ivory hair, a crown of icicle spears.

The singer of North Wind's song,
The composer of the snow
The artist of this wonderland
Both our dearest friend and foe

He takes my hand beneath Holly trees
Diamonds sparkling above and below
To lead me into his lonely labyrinth
Of moonlight, ice and snow.

His melody has set and numbed my mind
Seduced me to his will,
My lips burn with the cold as I follow him
Ensnared by his heart's icy chill.

And so, I walk in darkness at his side
In this forest's icy tomb
And I can't help wonder: Has he set me free?
Or lured me to my doom?

Ok! So there are two main ways that you can take this poem!
You can take it realistically and say that this is someone walking in a blizzard who is slowly dying of/ succumbing to hyperthermia and is hallucinating about music and falling into their own escapist fantasy...the seductive King being a metaphor for the cold Winter conditions that are slowly killing them ...

OR

You can take the romantic, fantasy view that this is a genuine maiden lost in the woods being tempted by a real life Snow King (Jack Frost- the mischevious spirit of Ice, perhaps?) into following him into his Wintery paradise because he is lonely and has no one to listen to his music except the icy trees around him...and now he has found a young girl to be his queen/best friend/music critic...

MAKE YOUR CHOICE!


My inspirtation for this lil' number draws from the myth of Jack Frost, Hans Christian Andersson's "The Snow Queen" and an actual walk I took in the snow before with some friends...t'was magical! Seriously...

...ok, and a small bit of inspiration came from a face-plant I had in the snow a while ago -_-


Anyway Enjoy! Comment and criticise at your own will and share your thoughts!

The first take on it seems actually alot more....interesting if I had no other word for it. I mean, the maiden in the woods seems nice but.....all in all it really seems like as beautiful as it is the poem has a grim meaning, knowing that the narrator is dying and probably delusional because of that.

It's really well written, I love it! Keep up the good work!

Yeah, personally as the poet, I do actually prefer the more sinister interpretation. I just felt to need to add the fantasy-ish one too because that kind of thing was what I initially drew my inspiration from. (^-^)
Thank you so much for the lovely review! I'm glad that you liked it! *hugs*

Im reminded of Hans Christen Andersons' Die Schneekönigin...

My word, this piece is absolutely beautiful. I love how the narrator's enrapturement (yay making new words) by the 'song' starts slowly, and then quickly escalates until she can't escape it. It's a perfect metaphor for both love and death, so it fits both interpretations.

It's an oddly calming story, considering what the first interpretation could be, but it fits eerily well.

Though my review for this is less enthused than my review for My Teddy, I did really enjoy reading this... and I thank you for having SOME rhymes... poems without rhymes make me sad.

Thank you so much, guys!

@Admin-sama: That was actually one of my inspiration pieces, though I've never read the tale in its native language.

@Gael: Thanks sooo much for a lovely review! I'm glad that you liked it...and that you picked up on the metaphors there! Yes, I quite like rhyming too...I throw in the blank verse to convey the flow of thought. Though, Robert Frost once said that freeverse with no rhythm is like throwing a ball against a wall and calling it tennis, so I always try to chuck in some rhythm too. (^-^) I'm happy that you liked the rhyme though!
It's really great, as always, to get such praise from such a talented writer.

@Iggy: XDDDDDDDDDDD
ADVENTURE TIME!!!!!!
I LOVE IT!!!!

@Admin-sama (again): XDDDDDDDDD
WOOP! EVEN BETTER!