For Demonstration Purposes Only

Canute had failed to conquer the Atlantic.
Though some would later claim he didn't try.
Those claims, however genuine or frantic,
their efforts to suppress and to deny
the obvious, ring fatuous and hollow.
Did not the man put throne upon the shore?
Command the tide to stop while it was shallow,
to stop it from returning, as before?
They claim that it was just a demonstration.
A way to teach his courtiers a truth:
No man, whatever his affair or station,
no youth, or one that's longer in the tooth,
commands the tide to stay where it once stood.
They claim. But we all know he wished he could.

Author notes: image generated by author prompt to Gemini