Compare the two personas in the poem "Elizabeth" by Michael Ondaatje and the poem "When I was Fair and Young" by Elizabeth I.

The persona in Michael Ondaatje's "Elizabeth" experiences
two significant transitions. She begins as a happy, pampered young girl who is joyful
and carefree as she does commonplace things and goes to typical places with her father:
they pick apples with Uncle Jack and they go to the zoo with Mrs. Kelly (scowling in the
background). During these escapades, UncleJack and Daddy are building Elizabeth's skills
and courage as well as entertaining her:

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Catch, my Uncle Jack said
and oh I
caught this huge apple

they put a snake around my neck
and
it crawled down the front of my
dress

The first transition
comes when the poem introduces Tom, with whom Elizabeth has a delicately written about
romance: "quick urgent love ... ." Here, Elizabeth leaves joyful, carefree childhood
behind and enters the awe inspiring wonderment of young adulthood: "I kept his love in
my palm ... ."

The second transition comes immediately after.
Elizabeth undergoes the traumatic experience of witnessing the execution of Tom, during
which he mimics the motions of "the [dance] steps of France," which he taught her
while

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turning
with the rhythm of the sun on
the warped branches,

This
transition leads to her end state, that of being a withdrawn woman who is content with
other, lesser romantic involvement with "white young Essex" and the silent comfort of
her "nimble rhymes."

By contrast, the persona in "When I was Fair and
Young"--questionably authored by Queen Elizabeth I--is speaking as a mature woman who
has already gone through the transitions written of by Ondaatje. In this shorter poem
with repeated refrain, Elizabeth is reflecting back on her choice to reject all offers
of marriage, a choice Ondaatje credits to her love for and traumatic loss of Tom.
Elizabeth’s conclusion is that in her mature age, now no longer "fair and young," thus
no longer sought after, she regrets her pride in saying to all
suitors:

Go,
go, go, seek some otherwhere,
Importune me no more.

When he
had spake these words such change grew in my breast,
That neither night nor
day I could take any rest.
Then, lo!  I did repent, that I had said
before
Go, go, go, seek some otherwhere,
Importune me no
more.