King of the Sea
Perfidious sea, I command ye turn back!
Do not dare ye soak my sovereign feet!
I am thy king, cease thy futile attack,
Encroach not an inch more upon my beach!
Hear my royal proclamation, unruly tide!
Do not dare ye assault thy rightful lord!
Lest I sentence ye for would-be regicide,
And punish thy actions by fire and sword!
Presume not thyself to my justice immune,
Do not dare ye forget the scourge I may wreak!
My war-forged crown with thy memory attune!
To my battle-notched blade is thy surface weak!
As Caligula's legions made thy frail waves subdued,
Do not dare ye doubt that so too shall Canute!
Blood is thicker than water, if ye make it a feud,
Thy sheer liquid shall never royal veins dilute!
Turn back from my throne, I called ye not hither!
Do not dare ye trespass on my kingdom's land!
Get gone from my person, ye oversize river!
Come not without summons to my golden sand!
My advisors do claim that the waves I command,
And so their counsel I shall chance now to heed.
Let me prove that thy waters turn back at my hand,
Thy tide shall not rise where I have not decreed!
Behold my majesty! I am Canute the Great!
King of Danes, English, Norwegians and Swedes!
Northern sea, ye are but my own Danish lake!
Now from thy master's presence, humbly recede!
Perfidious sea, ye flee not? Accept thy defeat!
Dare ye disobey the north's greatest king?
Around my throne lap thy waves, sodden my feet,
Ye mock my royal order to my royal chagrin.
Or thus it would it be, if I dared to believe,
That man's power may compel the might of the sea.
No sycophant courtier shall my wisdom deceive,
A great king sits not well with proud vanity.
Thy waves are not mine - though I sail them at will,
It is thy grace that permits me to do so, not mine!
I am no messiah to command thy waters be still,
I am king only of soil, with no hold over brine.
All my deeds on earth may seem great to we men,
Yet a man too am I, my power far from unbound.
I cannot speak to ye, sea, with authority as then,
It was not over nature that this servant was crowned.
No matter what victories we may deem great things,
I as all men own scarce power or sway.
Let all know how empty and worthless is the power of kings,
None is worthy of the name but whom oceans obey!