Romance

Morn, and a world of wonder! Oh, the time Of winds like trumpet calls, and seas that gleam, And sounding sunlit roads that wind and climb Far over hills of dream, - Travelled by knight and pedlar, prince and priest, Past many an echoing port and ringing bridge, To some black fortress like a couchant beast Crouched on a mountain ridge, - Fords perilous, and haunted reach and pool, Far-shining spires under the blaze of noon, And twilight shrines of visions wonderful, Dusk and an angry moon. Glimmer of ambush - dungeons, strange escapes, Ships swinging on the swell of darkling tides, And faerie forests full of eerie shapes, Long, flickering, grass-grown rides. Dark crooked streets with lights like peering eyes, Plotters in half-lit halls of palaces, Orchards and gardens full of lurking spies, And whispering passages. Travail and bondage, battle-flags unfurled, Earth at the prime, and God earth's wrongs above, Honour and hope, youth and the beckoning world, Peril and war and love!