The Young Knight: A Parable

A gay young knight in Burley stood,
Beside him pawed his steed so good,
His hands he wrung as he were wood
    With waiting for his love O!

'Oh, will she come, or will she stay,
Or will she waste the weary day
With fools who wish her far away,
    And hate her for her love O?'

But by there came a mighty boar,
His jowl and tushes red with gore,
And on his curled snout he bore
    A bracelet rich and rare O!

The knight he shrieked, he ran, he flew,
He searched the wild wood through and through,
But found nought save a mantle blue,
    Low rolled within the brake O!

He twined the wild briar, red and white,
Upon his head the garland dight,
The green leaves withered black as night,
    And burnt into his brain O!

A fire blazed up within his breast,
He mounted on an aimless quest,
He laid his virgin lance in rest,
    And through the forest drove O!

By Rhinefield and by Osmondsleigh,
Through leat and furze brake fast drove he,
Until he saw the homeless sea,
    That called with all its waves O!

He laughed aloud to hear the roar,
And rushed his horse adown the shore,
The deep surge rolled him o'er and o'er,
    And swept him down the tide O!

New Forest, July 12, 1847.

Charles Kingsley

Charles Kingsley was an English writer, historian, and clergyman born on June 12, 1819, in Holne, Devon. He was associated with the Christian Socialist movement and was a friend of prominent figures such as Charles Darwin. Kingsley is best known for his historical novels, including 'Westward Ho!' and 'Hypatia,' as well as his children's book 'The Water-Babies.' His works often explore social issues and aim to contribute to societal reform. Kingsley died on January 23, 1875, in Eversley, Hampshire.

Charles Kingsley

Juventus Mundi

Charles Kingsley, Simple Poetry

On The Death Of Leopold, King Of The Belgians[1]

Charles Kingsley, Simple Poetry

Pen-Y-Gwrydd: To Tom Hughes, Esq.

Charles Kingsley, Simple Poetry

Valentine's Day

Charles Kingsley, Simple Poetry

English

Suggested Poems

Explore a curated selection of verses that share themes, styles, and emotional resonance with the poem you've just read.

A New Forest Ballad

Oh she tripped over Ocknell plain,
    And down by Bradley Water;
And the fairest maid on the forest side
    Was Jane, the keeper's daughter.

She went and went through the broad gray lawns
    As down the red sun sank,
And chill as the scent of a new-made grave
    The mist smelt cold and dank.

'A token, a token!' that fair maid cried,
    'A token that bodes me sorrow;
For they that smell the grave by night
    Will see the corpse to-morrow.

'My own true love in Burley Walk
    Does hunt to-night, I fear;
And if he meet my father stern,
    His game may cost him dear.

'Ah, here's a curse on hare and grouse,
    A curse on hart and hind;
And a health to the squire in all England,
    Leaves never a head behind.'

Charles Kingsley

The Red King

The King was drinking in Malwood Hall,
There came in a monk before them all:
He thrust by squire, he thrust by knight,
Stood over against the dais aright;
And, 'The word of the Lord, thou cruel Red King,
The word of the Lord to thee I bring.
A grimly sweven I dreamt yestreen;
I saw thee lie under the hollins green,
And through thine heart an arrow keen;
And out of thy body a smoke did rise,
Which smirched the sunshine out of the skies:
So if thou God's anointed be
I rede thee unto thy soul thou see.
For mitre and pall thou hast y-sold,
False knight to Christ, for gain and gold;
And for this thy forest were digged down all,
Steading and hamlet and churches tall;
And Christes poor were ousten forth,
To beg their bread from south to north.
So tarry...

Charles Kingsley

The Knight's Leap: A Legend Of Altenahr

'So the foemen have fired the gate, men of mine;
    And the water is spent and gone?
Then bring me a cup of the red Ahr-wine:
    I never shall drink but this one.

'And reach me my harness, and saddle my horse,
    And lead him me round to the door:
He must take such a leap to-night perforce,
    As horse never took before.

'I have fought my fight, I have lived my life,
    I have drunk my share of wine;
From Trier to Coln there was never a knight
    Led a merrier life than mine.

'I have lived by the saddle for years two score;
    And if I must die on tree,
Then the old saddle tree, which has borne me of yore,
    Is the properest timber for me.

'So now to show bishop, and burgher, and priest,
    How the Altenahr hawk can die:<...

Charles Kingsley

The Bad Squire

The merry brown hares came leaping
    Over the crest of the hill,
Where the clover and corn lay sleeping
    Under the moonlight still.

Leaping late and early,
    Till under their bite and their tread
The swedes and the wheat and the barley
    Lay cankered and trampled and dead.

A poacher's widow sat sighing
    On the side of the white chalk bank,
Where under the gloomy fir-woods
    One spot in the ley throve rank.

She watched a long tuft of clover,
    Where rabbit or hare never ran;
For its black sour haulm covered over
    The blood of a murdered man.

She thought of the dark plantation,
    And the hares, and her husband's blood,
And the voice of her indignation
    Rose up to the throne of God.

'I am l...

Charles Kingsley

Sir Hugh the Palmer

    I

    He kneeled among a waste of sands
        Before the Mother-Maid,
    But on the far green forest-lands
        His steadfast eyes were stayed,
    And like a knight of stone his hands
        He straightened while he prayed.

    "Lady, beyond all women fair,
        Beyond all saints benign,
    Whose living heart through life I bear
        In mystery divine,
    Hear thou and grant me this my prayer,
        Or grant no prayer of mine.

    "The fever of my spirit's pain
        Heal thou with heavenly scorn;
    The dust that but of dust is fain
        Leave thou in dust forlorn;
    Yea! bury love to rise again
        Meet for eternal morn.

    "So by thy grace my inward eyes
        Thy beauty still ...

Henry John Newbolt

The Baffled Knight

The Text is from Ravenscroft's Deuteromelia (1609), reprinted almost verbatim in Tom Durfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy.


The Story was sufficiently popular not only to have been revived, at the end of the seventeenth century, but to have had three other 'Parts' added to it, the whole four afterwards being combined into one broadside.

In similar Spanish, Portuguese, and French ballads, the damsel escapes by saying she is a leper, or the daughter of a leper, or otherwise diseased. Much the same story is told in Danish and German ballads.


THE BAFFLED KNIGHT

    1.
    Yonder comes a courteous knight,
        Lustely raking over the lay;
    He was well ware of a bonny lasse,
        As she came wand'ring over the way.
    Then she sang do...

Frank Sidgwick