Michael Lampasona

This story is about a king who hires a poet to create a poem about the history of Ireland. The poet comes back with a rehearsed poem that the king enjoys and appreciates. He gives the poet a silver mirror as a gift, and instructs him to come back with another poem. The poet comes back with a less rehearsed, stranger poem. Surprisingly, the king enjoys this poem even more, and rewards the poet with a golden mask and instructs him to come back with another poem. The poet comes back, this time with one line. He recites it to the king, and both of them are awestruck by the meaning of this line; both believe they truly heard beauty. The king gives the poet a dagger to kill himself. The poet commits suicide, and the king becomes a commoner after hearing this one line.

This story was quite deep. It makes me very curious what this one line was, or could have been about to cause such strong reactions from the king and the poet. It must have been very moving, because it changed both of their lives drastically.