Then you came from South and North,
From Tugela, from the Tweed,
Blazoned his achievements forth,
King Romance is come indeed!
All his foes are overthrown,
All their wares cast out in scorn,
King Romance hath won his own,
And the lands where he was born!
Marsac at adventure rides,
Felon men meet felon scathe,
Micah Clarke is taking sides
For King Monmouth and the Faith;
For a Cause or for a lass
Men are willing to be slain,
And the dungeons of the Bass
Hold a prisoner again.
King Romance with wand of gold
Sways the realms he ruled of yore.
Hills Dalgetty roamed of old,
Valleys of enchanted Kôr:
Waves his sceptre o’er the isles,
Claims the pirates’ treasuries,
Through innumerable miles
Of the siren-haunted seas!
Elfin folk of coast and cave,
Laud him in the woven dance,
All the tribes of wold and wave
Bow the knee to King Romance!
Wand’ring voices Chaucer knew
On the mountain and the main,
Cry the haunted forest through,
King Romance has come again!
CENTRAL AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES
IN SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM
‘Youth and crabbed age
Cannot live together;’
So they say.
On this little page
See you when and whether
That they may.
Age was very old—
Stones from Chichimec
Hardly wrung;
Youth had hair of gold
Knotted on her neck—
Fair and young!