Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE POET'S JOURNAL: THE COUNT OF GLEICHEN, by BAYARD TAYLOR Poet's Biography First Line: I read that story of the saxon knight Last Line: Is happier for thy sake! Alternate Author Name(s): Taylor, James Bayard Subject(s): Kisses; Knights & Knighthood; Life; Love; Tears | ||||||||
I READ that story of the Saxon knight, Who, leaving spouse and feudal fortress, made The Cross of Christ his guerdon in the fight, And joined the last Crusade. Whom, in the chase on Damietta's sands Estrayed, the Saracens in ambush caught, And unto Cairo, to the Soldan's hands, A wretched captive brought: Whom then the Soldan's child, a damsel brave, Saw, pitied, comforted, and made him free. And with him flew, herself a willing slave In Love's captivity. I read how he to bless her love was fain, To whom his renovated life he owed, Yet with a pang the towers beheld again Where still his wife abode: The wife whom first he loved: would she not scorn The second bride he could not choose but wed, The second mother to his children, born In her divided bed? Lo! at his castle's foot the noble dame With tears of blessing, holy, undefiled By human pain, received him when he came, And kissed the Soldan's child! My tears were on the pages as I read The touching close: I made the story mine, Within whose heart, long plighted to the dead, Love built his living shrine. I too had dared, a captive in the land, To pay with love the love that broke my chain: Would she, who waited, stretch the pardoning hand, When I returned again? Would she, my freedom and my bliss to know, With my disloyalty be reconciled, And from her bower in Eden look below, And bless the Soldan's child? For she is lost: but she, the later bride, Who came my ruined fortune to restore, Back from the desert wanders at my side, And leads me home once more. If human love, she sighs, could move a wife The holiest sacrifice of love to make, Then the transfigured angel of thy life Is happier for thy sake! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BANGLA DESH: 2. THE BLOOD IN MY EYES by FAIZ AHMED FAIZ TIME ROCKING ON by ANSELM HOLLO TEARS AND KISSES by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON DOMESDAY BOOK: GEORGE JOSLIN ON LA MENKEN by EDGAR LEE MASTERS HOW FAR IS IT TO THE LAND WE LEFT? by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE TEARS FALL IN MY HEART by PAUL VERLAINE BEDOUIN [LOVE] SONG by BAYARD TAYLOR NATIONAL ODE; INDEPENDENCE SQUARE, PHILADELPHIA by BAYARD TAYLOR |
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