The Equinox (Volume I, Number IV)

38 XIV Nortuwarp the good knight gallops fast, Resolved to seek his foe at home, When rose that Vision of the past, The royal battlements of Rome, A ruined city, and a dome. There in the broken Forum sat A red-robed robber in a Hat. “Whither away, Sir Knight, so fey?” “Priest, for the dove on Ararat T could not, nor I will not, stay!” “T know thy quest. Seek on in vain A golden hart with silver horns! Life springeth out of divers pains. What crown the King of Kings adorns? A crown of gems? A crown of thorns! The Questing Beast is like a king In face, and hath a pigeon’s wing And claw; its body is one fleece Of bloody white, a lamb’s in spring. Enough. Sir Knight, I give thee peace.”