Montage Poem Project: French Revolution

Please do not steal or copy my work.

For Class, we were assigned to create a montage project on something in history or our personal history. At the time doing something personal would have been painful. So, I did something historical. I have always been facinated by the French Revolution.

Introduction Poem

The Revolution: Narrated by Terror - La Révolution: Rapporté par Terreur

I was Spreading.

Like blood, I raced through

The boiling veins of men.

Casting doubt upon tranquil lives of deception.

                I saw nothing tranquil in my children starving.

The Yankees embraced me first,

With hearts of rage

And passionate revenge desired.

They craved the flesh of victory between their teeth.

                Taxes, drought, debt, cattle disease.

With the precision, similar to my brother Plague,

I leisurely strolled to France.

And what a time I had,

Dwelling in the minds of the masses.

                Their ignorance can be tolerated no more.

The messieurs and maquerelles

Invited me to their lovely homes,

Where the ideas of

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity- were disregarded.

                Oh, how they will forfeit their power amongst screams.

Their dead thoughts,

I hold them sensually to my chest.

As the sweet blood from their paper necks

Stain my hands, warming them.

                Vive la Révolution.

Monologue Poem

Writing to You with Love - Écrivant à vous avec amour

 October 14, 1793.

                Beloved diary,

I write you in hopes of gaining courage.

(Though I know I will gain none.)

Today, I was brought before the Revolutionary tribunal.

They looked upon me with disgust-which I am starting to get used to.

I remember the days, the wonderful days,

When all I had to do was stand upon a stool

As my tailor fitted my gowns,

When I sat in front of my vanity

As my hair was done and my wigs adorned

With beautiful feathers and vividly colored birds-

And the time, with the miniature boat,

It was quite a lovely boat…

I miss those days.

Truly I do.

The men,

They adored me, you know.

Of course, I never did as the rumors suggested.

I only teased with my favorite pink fan,

As it shielded my face, only showing my bright eyes,

Hiding my smile, so full of pleasure,

As I watched their lusts drive them to insanity-

Completely losing their heads.

I do not mean that unkindly,

Of course not.

But when one has a husband like mine,

Who does not care whether you are near or not,

You crave the attention of those unattainable.

Now, more than ever,

I wish he were never my husband.

My poor head greatly aches.

The lighting in here is very dull.

It is also very cold.

Bitterly cold, I wish for illness to take me,

In two days time.

The thought of my head…

In a pool of blood,

In an old whicker basket,

How did it come to this?

Documentary Poem

For all we know - Pour tout ce que nous savons

Thank you for joining us today.

Shall we Begin?

If you look to your left, you will see what helped spur the French Revolution:

-The American Revolution

-Enlightenment ideals

                Popular Sovereignty

                Inalienable Rights

All that must have sent the people of France’s heads whirling. Must have caused them to think of what life could possibly be like.

Could you blame them?

Now,

The les états généraux was summoned; - an assembly representing France’s clergy, nobility, and middle class- the meeting was set for May 5, 1789. This had not happened since 1614.

While waiting for this date, delegates compiled cahiers de doléances for the king:

King Louis XVI

The assembly was put together because, in the fall of 1786, Louis XVI’s controller general, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, proposed a financial reform package that dealt with a universal land tax from which the privileged classes would no longer be exempt- the meeting was a measure of forestalling a growing aristocratic revolt.

Because the Lower classes revolting was less threatening.

Naturally.

The non-aristocratic members of the Third Estate now embodied 98% of the people.

But they could still be outvoted by the other two heads.

            The Third estate mobilized support for equal representation.

            They wanted voting by head and not by status.

 When the Estates-General convened at Versailles, the very public debate rose to levels of hostility, among the three orders.

             June 17, 1789: the Third Estate met alone and officially adopted the title of National        Assembly. Three days later they took the serment du jeu de paume, vowing not to disperse      until constitutional reform had been achieved.

                A week later, most of the clerical deputies and 47 liberal nobles joined the.

                June 27:  Louis XVI immersed all three orders to make a new assembly.

                                Resentfully.

Shall we continue?

I do hope your feet do not feel sore.

Onwards.

 June 12: while the National Assembly continued to collaborate at Versailles, emotions ran thick as terror and violence ran hand in hand joyously through the capital.

            

            Despite enthusiasm about the breakdown of royal power, Parisians were anxious as         rumors flew of a possibly impending military coup began to travel.

            July 14: the Bastille fortress is stormed to secure gunpowder and weapons.

            Many consider this the start of the Revolution.

It is a national holiday in France.

You will receive miniature flags on your way out.

Questions?

No?

Wonderful.

Waves of the revolution swept up the country in swells of hysteria.

Peasants looted and burned homes of:

-Tax Collectors

-Landlords

-Seigniorial Elite

I would do this too if I had the chance.

What about you sir?

 Oh, I beg your pardon.

You are a vital member of society.

 Anyways,

   
   The la Grande peur: the agrarian rebellion hastened the growing evacuation of nobles from the country and inspired the National Constitution Assembly to abolish Feudalism on August 4, 1789.

Georges Lefebvre later called it the “death certificate of the old order”.

                                Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen:  “The document proclaimed the Assembly’s commitment to replace the ancient regime with a system based on equal opportunity, freedom of speech, popular sovereignty and representative government.”

To Your left is a painting of the day.

              September 3, 1791: France’s first written constitution echoed the more moderate voices in the Assembly. It established a constitutional monarchy in which the king had royal veto power and the ability to appoint ministers.

             As you can imagine, this did not sit well with some. Influential radicals like Maximilien de             Robespierre, Camille Desmoulins and Georges Danton were full of bitter blood. They       created popular support for a more republican form of government. Louis XVI was put       on trial.

            April 1792: The new Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria and Prussia. They were feeling quite daring. It was believed, in these countries, French émigrés were building counterrevolutionary alliances. It was also hoped that warfare would spread thick the revolutionary ideals across Europe.

Meanwhile, looking domestically, the political crisis took a major turn when a group of insurgents led by the extremist Jacobins attacked the royal home in Paris and gleefully arrested the king on August 10, 1792.

             January 10, 1793: King Louis XVI was sent to the guillotine for high treason and crimes    against the state.

            Nine months late, 1793, his wife Marie Antoinette was executed by the ever popular       guillotine, as well.

No longer would she be the life of the party.

Please exit on your right.

Thank you.

Conclusion Poem

The Future: Narrated by Hope - L'avenir: Rapporté par l'espoir

For ten months they hid

Amongst severed heads and blood,

Which dried prettily in patterns

On their rough soles.

            We were free by words, not action.
 

Blindly feeling their way.

I took pity,

I could not leave them in such

Despairing conditions.

            Would we ever eat the fruits of our murderous labor?

I could not wait for the days

When they would commemorate

All they endured

With such dazzling celebration.

             What are we fighting to save-only broken pieces of a dream.

If only they could see

All that they would become.

They would fight with more dignity,

Defend with youthful vigor.

            We can go on, but for how much longer is the question.

They will see.

No longer will Terror reign,

No longer will they cry out to heaven.

They will be revived by shock alone.

           We are slave to our mistress, Hope.