 | Christ's Company and Other Poems |  |
142
The Crusader's Monument.
Hands at rest
Cross my breast,
Left arm closes sword to side;
Thus I slept
When we leapt
From the saddle at eventide.
Cross my breast,
Left arm closes sword to side;
Thus I slept
When we leapt
From the saddle at eventide.
Like a tent,
My monument
Soars o'er me to its height of arch;
My burgonet
Is rivelled yet,
As if against the morrow's march.
My monument
Soars o'er me to its height of arch;
My burgonet
Is rivelled yet,
As if against the morrow's march.
Morning's beam
Strikes a gleam
From my shield hung up on high:
Had a foe
Struck that blow,
Should I start to arms and issue try?
Strikes a gleam
From my shield hung up on high:
Had a foe
Struck that blow,
Should I start to arms and issue try?
143
Here the rood
Years hath stood,
As it shook over me in the clanging strife;
Ah! poor knight,
Thou dost fight
For holy cross another life.
Years hath stood,
As it shook over me in the clanging strife;
Ah! poor knight,
Thou dost fight
For holy cross another life.
Work was mine
In Palestine,
When the Paynims howled round me as I lay;
Here they pray
Night and day,
But I fight with long fiends since my dying day.
In Palestine,
When the Paynims howled round me as I lay;
Here they pray
Night and day,
But I fight with long fiends since my dying day.
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