Peters’ verse narrative The Picnic in the Snow: Ludwig of Bavaria (1982, rev. 1986) is a bio-drama about Ludwig II, King of Bavaria, an unhappy gay man, creative and destructive, who “cultivated the esthetic experience and the dream world.” Ludwig’s picnic in the snow is a sexual liaison with Richard Hornig, his equerry.
The picnic passage includes a hearty meal:
Unpack the wine. Spread a cloth over the snow,
there, near that spruce with the pitch-green
branches. Portion the roast quail and the brisket,
the potatoes, the mouse,
and later serve the brandied coffee.
The passage ends with sexual innuendo; the sly hint that the “proximity of ice improves/ your appetite” is meant to infer the sexual activities that are to come.
Featured Image: Joseph Albert. Portrait of Ludwig II, King of Bavaria, Porträtstudie von König Ludwig II (1867)
See Robert Peters. The Picnic in the Snow: Ludwig of Bavaria. St. Paul, MN: New Rivers Press, 1982; Ludwig of Bavaria: Poems and a Play, Revised edition, Cherry Valley, 1986