Peer Gynt Suites

An old Norwegian folktale called Per Gynt was written into a five act play by another Norwegian, Henrik Ibsen, which he called Peer Gynt, to which composer Edvard Grieg wrote his Suites to accompany the play (some of my favorite classical music). This suite of poems is an interpretation of what three of these compositions accompanied in the play itself. From Grieg's Suite #1 op. 46, though the order was switched in the play and reflected here. Further explanation is exhaustive, I doubt a Crown of Sonnets could do it justice. The suite will consist of a Couplet, a Quatrain, and a Haiku. In the Hall of the Mountain King (Couplets) What is this nightmare - this cursed place where evil troll has evil face and shouts and yells louder and louder to slice me up, then boiled in chowder! This place of goblins, gnomes and trolls is made of me ... the King's my soul! The Death of Ase's - Quatrain (his mother) Dear Mother, we are not of the same brand, on the one hand a lullaby, on the other a beating? What wasted time on the cusp of love, when instead, from that love retreating. But now, I look upon and kiss your cold brow and find peace in that always troubled face; I see hope there, to someday find the same - for this mortal life I gladly will replace. Morning Mood - Haiku on this desert morn robbed by friends and sought by beasts ~ a peaceful sunrise