Alas (The Knight)

Alas

My love

If I could make you live

And from the page

Step forth and sit beside me

Or better still

Bestride the steed I gave you

Wrapped close within the cloak

I lent to hide thee

Perhaps I’d venture forth to ask thy name

Since while thou liest underneath my pen

That honour given

Which the poorest claim

Unjustly was withheld

But if again

I held thee captive

As I did ere now

Stalling to pass my fingers through the last

Of midnight tendrils

Or peruse thy brow

In fear of sending off what heaven cast

Too early

For my insufficient mind

To grasp the fullest detail

And retain

The presence

That your image left behind

That thou in all thy glory should remain

I fear my oversight

I would not mend

For now upon reflection

I confess

That secretly

I never did intend

With title long

Or surname rich

To bless

But rather

Let in my imagination

Run wild the thoughts of

Who perhaps you were

Before your soul

Demanded your creation

And deigned my mind

And willing heart to stir

For such a noble

And impassioned face

Could well be but

Newborn unto this sphere

But sure among a distant

Beauteous race

Thou hast known more than all who dwelleth here

And could tell much of places thou hast seen

And battles fought

For honours won and lost

And how each service

Done a faerie Queen

Becomes

A brighter jewel than it cost

The ladies of your world

You may impart

Desire to be neither

Over-graced

Nor underrepresented in the art

Of living

Where their lips were meant to taste

A sort of feline stealth

They wear about them

And while a flame of innocence they hold

In forests dark

You fear to be without them

For knights of maler kinds are ne’er so bold

Yes, in thy orb a maid may be a knight

(Thou knew’st a friend would make upon this news)

Without a whisper loud

Or censure slight

For lords are not afeared

Their stock to lose

Where no stock may be taken

Or be kept

No property be granted

Nor no bride

No maiden

May be stolen while she slept

Nor robbed of her freedom

To decide

What suits her best

No county’s law is needed

To cut the **** of violence from the stem

No danger for the law to go unheeded

For acts as these

Do not occur to them

The gentlemen you raise

Are rarer still

For in their eyes, as in the depths of thine

Such soft

And thrilling mysteries fulfill

The darkest corners of their heart’s design

Their arrows

Much like those I gave to thee

Could not but graze the flank of yonder cow

Without making him laugh

‘Tis much to see

Them tickling their prey

I know not

How

They ever do

Encapture what they eat

Save that perhaps

Their bright unfettered brains

Have learned that

What grows underneath their feet

And in the trees above

Better sustains

A life

Intent on living well tomorrow

But how

I ask thee

Most endearing fiend

Do lords and ladies love

Where is no

Sorrow

No strife to overcome

No soul uncleaned

Of crushing ardor

Long worn out its stay

Betrothal to a mortal less divine

Than that who stole thy blushing breath away

No hot

Forbidden kisses for to pine

No heart affixed to age

Where heart is young

No ill intentioned suitors to evade?

“Still madam!

Would'st thou kindly hold thy tongue”

Thou sayest

“Your mistake has rash been made

In living long

In combat with your kind

Thou see’st no other obstacle but these

Thy hands are careworn

Yet to find

The hands that first should hold them

Yet to please the hierarchy

Which you serve unwitting

Thou dost believe that love in fighting grows

That happiness

In love

Is not befitting

But in thy sadness

Thou mak’st light of woes

For even were there ne’er a cloudy day

No tempest

To divide what love had bound

The galley

Which the moon holds in her sway

Could not but stir

The peace it finally found

The wound is deeper than the sea about thee

The stars upon my doublet

You have drawn

May light my homeward path

But how

Without me

Wilt thou escape the fate

Thou tremblest on?”

And in this way

And more my paper spoke

O, fierce, savage

Gentle beauty bright

Thou who I’ve given breath

My soul has broke

You had authority

But not the right

Could I but see the lips

That dare not breathe

They are so beautiful

And pressing sweet

Could I but touch the wings that underneath

Are made so soft

Thy heart forgets to beat

Perhaps I should have more

For which to strive

You came to my domain

And brought despair

For though I be the chastest heart alive

The realm you speak of

Will not take me there

Have you no pity?

Can’st thou not perceive

That I, a blinded beast

Had but the eyes

To see where I would love?

Dost thou believe

That ere you came

I was but vain disguise?

I know the murmur of music reveals

The things no human heart could comprehend

I render’st thou for all that torment feels

And longed to be thy lordship’s

Faithful friend

Yea, quiet as a mushroom

Did I wait

I willed to thee my form

To overtake

I shivered at each passing horse’s gait

And so I slept

To suddenly awake

Alas

My love

Wilt thou kiss me goodbye

The lingering night

Will aid thee on thy travels

I’ll craft but one thing more

A crow to fly

Before t

T tell me how thy tale unravels

I say, thou art complete and free to go

What holds thee here save one who lives no longer

For I have given thee the life you know

The weaker I become

Thou art the stronger

And in your antique words your clear intent

Was that once thou art gone

I should dismay

Quothe thee

“Your thought mistook me

For I meant

To leave thee not

But offerest to stay

For true

I never did in my own realm

Partake of that pure love of which I told thee

But be my guide

And with me at the helm

And I shall in the cloak you wrought

Enfold thee

And journey to the ends

Of all the earth

For thou hast proved more generous and wise

Than all we faeries

Moons and stars are worth

For live we not

But living in your eyes”

Dear nameless knight

If thou would’st be mine own

And leave thy dragons for a while

Thou may’st

Find in these arms within which

Thou hast grown

A better reason than that which thou say’st

But with your hand you pointeth

Swear I so

And ‘tis not plain to me

Though I did draw it

Which way thou dost intend for us to go

Sure in the mind it is

Of she who saw it

Yet still perhaps

I made thee to discover

What one would do

If one were asked to choose

‘Tween back and forwards

Be thee friend

Or lover

Perhaps

You were to be

My favorite muse

Thou feel’st thy armor

Fight

But when you must

Thou see’st the blade of truth

Below thy knee

Use arrows against all

Whom you mistrust

But when thou ride’st my way

Aim one at me

Your world is yours

As ere it was before

Your time beneath my busy hand

Well spent

I’ve made a thing I love

I ask

No more

And never shall redeem the heart I lent

Me in my world

And thyself in thine

Two petals

On the same and silent flower

And evermore

I’ll welcome thee in mine

Your dear creation

Was my finest hour