Alas, for that forgotten day
When chivalry was nourish’d,
When none but friars learn’d to pray,
And beef and beauty flourish’d;
And fraud in kings was held accursed,
And falsehood sin was reckon’d,
And mighty chargers bore my first,
And fat monks wore my second!
Ah, then I carried sword and shield
And casque with flaunting feather,
And earn’d my spurs in battle-field,
In winter and rough weather;
And polish’d many a sonnet up
To ladies’ eyes and tresses;
And learn’d to drain my father’s cup,
And loose my falcon’s jesses!
But dim is now my grandeur’s gleam,
The mongrel mob grows prouder;
And everything is done by steam,
And men are kill’d by powder;
And now I feel my swift decay,
And give unheeded orders;
And rot in paltry state away
With sheriffs and recorders.
is solved by Knighthood.
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232
My first you oft savagely pierce through and through;
My next harbours nonsense, and wisdom, and dust;
But, oh! what disaster might chance to accrue,
Should my whole, from my second, step into my first!
is solved by Earwig.
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