King Francis was a hearty king, and loved a royal sport,
And one day, as his lions fought, sat looking on the court.
The nobles filled the benches, with the ladies in their pride,
And ’mongst them sat the Count de Lorge, with one for whom he sighed:
And truly ’t was a gallant thing to see that crowning show,
Valor and love, and a king above, and the...
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(Peter Ronsard loquitur)
“HEIGHO,” yawned one day King Francis,
“Distance all value enhances!
When a man’s busy, why, leisure
Strikes him as wonderful pleasure—
’Faith, and at leisure once is he?
Straightway he wants to be busy.
Here we ’ve got peace; and aghast I ’m
Caught thinking war the true pastime!
Is there a reason... -
The King with all his kingly train
Had left his Pompadour behind,
And forth he rode in Senart’s wood
The royal beasts of chase to find.
That day by chance the Monarch mused,
And turning suddenly away,
He struck alone into a path
That far from crowds and courtiers lay.He saw the pale green shadows play
Upon the brown... -
On the sea and at the Hogue, sixteen hundred ninety-two,
Did the English fight the French—woe to France!
And the thirty-first of May, helter-skelter through the blue,
Like a crowd of frightened porpoises a shoal of sharks pursue,
Came crowding ship on ship to St. Malo on the Rance,
With the English fleet in view.’T was the squadron that...
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I Love contemplating—apart
From all his homicidal glory—
The traits that soften to our heart
Napoleon’s glory!’T was when his banners at Boulogne
Armed in our island every freeman,
His navy chanced to capture one
Poor British seaman.They suffered him—I know not how—
Unprisoned on the shore to roam;... -
I Sprang to the stirrup, and Joris and he;
I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three;
“Good speed!” cried the watch as the gatebolts undrew,
“Speed!” echoed the wall to us galloping through.
Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest;
And into the midnight we galloped abreast.Not a word to each other; we kept the great pace,—...
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SO all day long the noise of battle rolled
Among the mountains by the winter sea;
Until King Arthur’s Table, man by man,
Had fallen in Lyoness about their lord,
King Arthur: then, because his wound was deep,
The bold Sir Bedivere uplifted him,
Sir Bedivere, the last of all his Knights,
And bore him to a chapel nigh the field,
A... -
I waited for the train at Coventry;
I hung with grooms and porters on the bridge,
To watch the three tall spires: and there I shaped
The city’s ancient legend into this:Not only we, the latest seed of Time,
New men, that in the flying of a wheel
Cry down the past; not only we, that prate
Of rights and wrongs, have loved the people well... -
From “The Canterbury Tales: Prologue”
WHAN that Aprille with hise shourès soote 1
The droghte of March hath percèd to the roote,
And bathèd every veyne in swich 2 licour,
Of which vertue engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspirèd hath in every holt 3 and heeth
The tendre croppès, and the yongè sonne
... -
Lord Lovel he stood at his castle gate,
Combing his milk-white steed;
When up came Lady Nancy Belle,
To wish her lover good speed, speed,
To wish her lover good speed.“Where are you going, Lord Lovel?” she said,
“Oh! where are you going?” said she;
“I ’m going, my Lady Nancy Belle,
Strange countries for to see, to see...