Chapter I

I sang the Dolorous Stroke of Disillusion, Yet never have I broken faith with Joy: Flame-broidered trance and starless cold confusion Of slain and flying dreams shall not destroy The radiant oath to that bright Suzerain Whose lightning-lovely succour ambushed lies Even in the most impossible strait of pain. Mystical paradox, divine surprise Of rapture! By intensities alone Their spirits enter in to exultation For whom the burning winds of their sad zone Bear down the Dove of the Imagination, Who suffer superbly, _in scarlet violetted, As the Sacred Kings of the Lillie_ mourned their dead.*

* See Favine's "Book of Chivalry."