Classic and Contemporary Poetry
FORTUNIO; A PARABLE FOR THE TIMES, by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Who at the court of astolf, the great king Last Line: The sacred charms of perfect woman-hood! Subject(s): Legends | ||||||||
WHO at the court of Astolf, the great King, King of a realm of firs, and icy floes, Cold bright fiords, and mountains capped with clouds. Who there so loved and honored as the knight, The youthful knight Fortunio? Whence he came, None knew, nor whom his kindred: at a bound He passed all rivals moving towards the throne, And stood firm-poised above them; yet with mien So sweet it honeyed envy, and surprised The bitterest railers into complaisance! Low-voiced and delicate-featured, with a cheek As soft as peach down, or the golden dust Shrined in a maiden lily's heart of hearts, Yet a stern will bent bowlike, with the shaft Of some keen purpose swiftly drawn to head, Or launched unerring at its lofty mark, Rose thrilled with action, or high strung at aim, Beneath his jewelled doublet! While the hand So warm, so white, and wont to press the palm In palpitating clasp of fair sixteen, Could wield the ponderous battle-axe, or flash The lightning rapier in the foeman's eyes. Prince of the tourney and the dance alike, War's fiercer lists had seen his furrowless brow Flushed red with heat of battle, heard his voice Shrilled clear beyond the clarions, mount and break In larklike song far o'er the mists of blood, Through victory's calmer heaven. Mixed love and fear, With love ofttimes preponderant, girded him Closely as with an atmosphere disturbed Only by hints of thunder, ghosts of cloud. But love, all love, love in her passionate eyes, Love 'twixt the pure twin rosebuds of her mouth, Love in the arch of brooding, beauteous brows, And every wavering dimple wherein smiles At hide-and-seek with sly, mock frownings played, -- All love was Freyla, though a princess she, For this unknown Fortunio! Wildly beat And burned her heart at each soft glance he gave, Or softer word, albeit as yet unthrilled By answering passion! Swiftly flew her dreams Birdlike on balmy winds of fancy borne, To bridal realms empurpled and divine, -- Alas! but Scorn, that long had lurked and spied In ambush, shot its sudden bolts, and brought Those winged dreams transfixed to earth and dead! While Rage, Scorn's ally, in her father's breast, Clutched the sweet dreamer rudely, dragged her soul Into the garish glare of commonplace (Soon to be lit by horror's lurid star!) And so convulsed her tenderness with threats, That all her being seemed collapsed to fall Crushed, as in moral earthquake: "Doting fool," Outshrieked the King, "dost dream great Odin's blood Could mix with veins plebeian? Purge thy thoughts, Unvirgined, vile, of sacrilegious sin! But for this boy, our twelvemonth's grace hath raised So high, a moment's justice shall cast down To fathomless depths of ruin!" Wherewithal (Harping on justice still, though justice slept) The King decreed, "This youth Fortunio dies!" So, on a bright spring morn, the knight stood up, Fronting the royal doomsmen, with a face Sublimely calm; they tore his bravery off, His jewelled vest and knighthood's golden spurs, And bared his heart to catch the arrowy hail, -- When lo! beneath those rough, disrobing hands, The dangerous, lewd seducer, coyly bowed, Outbeamed a virgin beauty chaste and fair! The King, beholding, started, and then smiled: "Thou wanton madcap," said he, "go in peace!" O cordial eyes, the brown eyes and the blue, Or ye dark eyes, with deeps like midnight heavens, Where unimagined worlds of thought and love Shine starlike, would ye quench your glorious rays In the low levels of the lives of men? O gracious souls of women tender-sweet, And luminous with goodness, would ye soil Your nascent angel-plumage in the stye Of sordid worldliness? Be warned, be warned! Set not the frail spears of your rash caprice In rest against great Nature's pierceless shield; Strive not to grasp monopolies impure, Man's fated heritage. Be warned, be warned! For surely as yon bright sun dawns and dies, And sure as Nature, all immutable, Year after year completes her mystic round Through law's vast orbit, -- so ye desperate Fair, Arrayed against the eternal force of God, Must fall discomfited, and like that knight, The false Fortunio, rest your claims at last, Not on deft spells of simulated power, But on the soft white bosom which enspheres The sacred charms of perfect woman-hood! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE GHOST OF DEACON BROWN by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON ICE SHALL COVER NINEVEH by KENNETH REXROTH MONUMENT MOUNTAIN by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT THE STRANGER; AFTER A GUARANI LEGEND RECORDED BY ERNESTO MORALES by WILLIAM STANLEY MERWIN THE PHOENIX AND THE TURTLE by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE THE GUERDON by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THE LEGEND OF ARA-COELI by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH A STORM IN THE DISTANCE (AMONG THE GEORGIAN HILLS) by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE |
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