Love In The Age Of Chivalry (From Peyre Vidal, The Troubadour)

William Cullen BryantWilliam Cullen Bryant

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The earth was sown with early flowers,
  The heavens were blue and bright--
I met a youthful cavalier
  As lovely as the light.
I knew him not--but in my heart
  His graceful image lies,
And well I marked his open brow,
  His sweet and tender eyes,
His ruddy lips that ever smiled,
  His glittering teeth betwixt,
And flowing robe embroidered o'er,
  With leaves and blossoms mixed.
He wore a chaplet of the rose;
  His palfrey, white and sleek,
Was marked with many an ebon spot,
  And many a purple streak;
Of jasper was his saddle-bow,
  His housings sapphire stone,
And brightly in his stirrup glanced
  The purple calcedon.
Fast rode the gallant cavalier,
  As youthful horsemen ride;
"Peyre Vidal! know that I am Love,"
  The blooming stranger cried;
"And this is Mercy by my side,
  A dame of high degree;
This maid is Chastity," he said,
  "This squire is Loyalty."
William Cullen Bryant
About the poet

William Cullen Bryant

1794 - 1878/AmericanWilliam Cullen Bryant was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post. Although "Thanatopsis", his most famous poem, has been said to date from 1811, it is much more probable that Bryant began i…

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