SIR PALAMEDES, THE SARACEN KNIGHT
Ah! what conclusion subtly draws
From out this chaos of mad laws?
Am I, the effect, as I, the cause?
Nay, the brain reels beneath its swell
Of pompous thoughts. Enough to tell
That He is known Unknowable!”
Thus did that knightly Saracen
In Cantabrig’s miasmal fen
Lecture to many learned men.
So clamorous was their applause—
“His mind” (said they) “is free of flaws:
The Veil of God is thin as gauze! ”—
That almost they had dulled or drowned
The laughter (in its belly bound)
Of that dread Beast he had not found.
Nathless—although he would away—
They forced the lack-luck knight to stay
And lecture many a weary day.
Verily, almost he had caught
The infection of their costive thought,
And brought his loyal quest to naught.
It was by night that Palamede
Ran from that mildewed, mouldy breed,
Moth-eaten dullards run to seed !
gr