Q... is for Quatrain

A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines. One of the quatrains I had to study was the heroic stanza or elegiac stanza (iambic pentameter, rhyming ABAB or AABB; from Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard")
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

From Wikipedia, I found that "The Ruba'i form of rhymed quatrain was favored by Omar Khayyám, among others. This work was a major inspiration for Edward FitzGerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, written in Persian. The ruba'i was a particularly widespread verse form: the form rubaiyat reflects the plural."

Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
Your Winter garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To flutter—and the Bird is on the Wing.
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This is the seventeenth post for the April A-to-Z Blogging Challenge 2014.
Previously, Archaism, British literature, Critical Analysis, Drama, Edinburgh, Faust, Gothic Fiction, Humour, Interpretation, Journalling, Keats, Language, Metaphysical Poetry, Narration, Ode, Papillion(ed)

Q... is for Queen of Scots, Mary!

The history of civilisation is bloody and torturous. Death, murder, villainy, and tragedy... Mary's life, like the lives of many women before us, was difficult, and much more than what makes us complain. For one, she became Queen when she was 6 days old! What a joke... anyway, Scotland was ruled by regents while she grew up in France, married the french Dauphin, and came back to reign.
Imagine being 19 - 20, married, and expected to come and rule over a land that she was in for the first time! Anyway, when he died, she was heartbroken. But I don't think there was ever any place for personal emotions for Monarchs. She remarried, and soon after, that man died too or was murdered, but not before she bore him a son.
Following this, she made a mistake in marrying the prime accused of her ex-husband's murder. Two, he had divorced his earlier wife very recently. Three, he was Protestant! The Catholics were outraged, obviously! She was imprisoned and forced to give up her crown in favour of her one-year-old son. She escaped and fled to England, where she sought asylum from their Queen (her first cousin, once removed). But instead, her claim to the English throne politically meant that she was imprisoned, for 19 years! Finally, found guilty of plotting the assassination of the Queen, she was executed! Her son had her exhumed from her initial burial place, though, and re-interred in Westminster Abbey.

Edinburgh Castle: Entry to where the crown jewels of Scotland are kept

Phew! What a life to have led! Her story always makes me somber...

Born: Linlithgow Palace (to go),
Crowned: Stirling Castle (been!),
Gave birth to son: Edinburgh Castle (been!),
Recuperated from illness: Craigmillar Castle (to go),
Married both second and third husbands: Palace of Holyroodhouse (to go),
Imprisonment (Scotland): Loch Level Castle (seen),
Buried: Peterborough Cathedral (seen),
Re-interred: Westminster Abbey (been!)

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This post is part of the ongoing A-to-Z Challenge. Previously, Aye, Berwick, Cramond, Disability, Edinburgh, Forth Bridge, Glasgow, Hamish, Isle of Skye, John o' Groats, Kirk, Loch Lomond and Luss, Mogwai, Necropolis, Old Man of Storr, Portobello.