A chant of love for England, and other poems

by Helen Gray Cone

THE ACCOLADE
A SONG FOR THE BEGINNING

I

Now filled was all the sum

Of serving years, and past, forever past,

All duties, all delights, of young esquires:

And to the altar and the hour at last,—

The hour, the altar, of his dear desires,—

Clear-shriven and whitely clad the youth was come.

II

Full many a squire was in that household bred