Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE KNIGHTS AT RINGSTEAD: 4. THE KNIGHT BEAUCLERC TO THE LADY GLORIA, by RACHEL ANNAND TAYLOR Poet's Biography First Line: When that the queen with all her maids came / singing Last Line: Farewell! Farewell! But I have loved you best. Subject(s): Beauty; Courts & Courtiers; Crowns; Dreams; Flowers; Knights & Knighthood; Love; Roses; Nightmares | ||||||||
I. WHEN that the Queen with all her maids came singing Across the daisies, through a dusk of May, Their spoils of fairy gold and silver bringing, You rang no chime in that sweet roundelay: But held yourself a little way apart, Your hands above your heart, A fair frail image robed in royal scarlet, Dreaming of splendours insolent and war-lit, Dreaming of crowns to wear, Although your drooping head could hardly bear Its crown-imperial of yellow hair. II. Crowns, crowns of tournaments to lay before you! What was a wistful singer to your pride, A clerkly dreamer-Knight? Ah, to adore you, I gripped the lance, and threw the pen aside. But oh! the crown of song is loveliest. Yea! I have loved you best, Crowned you in dreams with faint white stars of glory, Kisses imagined from all antique story; But you as bindweed hold My rare dream-jasmine. You would circlets cold Of wounding laurel and of bruising gold. III. Therefore I lie here vanquished. Let the victor Carry the crown before your red-shod feet: Love is a cruel god,hath many a lictor To scourge with briar who found the Rose too sweet. Yon ring of hard bright faces hems me in, Branding like bitter sin: Yours flashes like a jewel,crowned, unsated, My shame your honour. Thus, then, was it fated, O cold unheeding breast! And yet the crown of love is loveliest. Farewell! Farewell! But I have loved you best. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VARIATIONS: 14 by CONRAD AIKEN VARIATIONS: 18 by CONRAD AIKEN LIVE IT THROUGH by DAVID IGNATOW A DREAM OF GAMES by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN THE DREAM OF WAKING by RANDALL JARRELL APOLOGY FOR BAD DREAMS by ROBINSON JEFFERS GIVE YOUR WISH LIGHT by ROBINSON JEFFERS A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN TO HER LOVER by RACHEL ANNAND TAYLOR |
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