2 Poems by Emma Guest

 

I’m Emma. 

A mum of one and secondary school teacher of 17 years. 

I’ve taught history for much of that time and having led literacy often enjoyed combining the 2- encouraging my students to learn and remember history through rhyme, song and rap! 

I still teach history very part time whilst managing a special needs provision for children with social, emotional and mental health needs. 

 

 

Saint Helena

 

Olga of Kiev,

Saint Helena to some,

Ruled as a regent

On behalf of her son.

 

Her husband’s death,

She sought to avenge,

For his torture and murder,

She would get revenge.

 

Tied to a tree,

Tortured, torn in two,

After revisiting the Drevlians 

And seeking more tribute.

 

Prince Mal then proposed,

Seeking an alliance,

And sent an army to Kiev

To ensure her compliance.

 

Twenty men sailed to Kiev with 

A proposal of marriage, but 

The people of Kiev raised 

Their boat like a carriage.

 

And dropped each of them into

A trench dug the day before,

Burying them alive 

As she settled her score.

 

Olga sent for more men 

Who would not know their plight. 

Offered them all a bath and 

Set the bath house alight.

 

A final request- 

For a funeral feast,

Drevlians massacred once drunk: 

Five thousand deceased.

 

Olga returned to Kiev

As some lay there alive,

And prepared an army to

Execute those who’d survived.

 

 

Red Shoes/ Dance Macabre: The Dancing Plague of 1518

From July to September,

 In fifteen eighteen,

A dancing plague possessed people-
One that no one had seen

In Strasbourg, Alsace, 

In modern-day France, 

Hundreds took to the cobbles

 In motion, to dance

Preceded by a star
Streaking 'cross the sky 

And floods, famine and hunger,
Sent from on high

At first others watched
As Frau Troftea danced, 

Their curiosity piqued,
Then they joined in, entranced

They danced without music
But to their own beat,
They danced without stopping-
An uncontrollable feat (feet)

A nocebo effect
Borne of anticipation, of fear,

 The cause of this affliction 

Remains unclear

Dancing by day
And dancing by night
A compulsion to dance
They could not fight

In just three months
There were four hundred dead
Caused by famine, hysteria,
Poverty, stress

A punishment from St Vitus

Or Demonic possession?

Resolved by divine intervention, 

Mass or Religious procession

Small crosses, red shoes
Given out at his shrine
For dancing and sin
Are one of a kind