The Poetical Works of William Motherwell/The Love-Lorn Knight and the Damsel Pitiless
The Love-Lorn Knight and the Damsel Pitiless.
'Uplift the Gonfanons of war—exalt the ruddy Rood—
Arise ye winds and bear me on against the Paynim brood!
Farewell to forest-cinctured halls, farewell to song and glee,
For toilsome march and clash of swords in glorious Galilee!
And grace to thee, haught damoisel—I ask no parting tear—
Another love may greet thee when I'm laid upon my bier!
'My bark upon the foaming flood shall bound before the gale,
Like arrow in its flight, until the Holy Land we hail;
Then firmly shall our anchors grasp the belt of Eastern land,
For planks will shrink and cordage rot ere we regain this strand;
And welcome be the trumpet's sound, the war-steed's tramp and neigh,
And death, for Palestina's cause, in the battle's hot mellay!'
O never for that love-lorn youth did vessel cleave the seas!
The hand of death was on the lips that wooed the ocean breeze;
They bare him to the damoisel, they laid him at her knee,
Though knight and pilgrim wept aloud—no tear dropt that ladye—
Three times she kissed the clay-cold brow of her unbidden guest,
Then took the vows at Mary's shrine, and there her ashes rest.