Poetry Archives

I.

Bright shone the lists, blue bent the skies,
 And the knights still hurried amain
To the tournament under the ladies’ eyes,
 Where the jousters were Heart and Brain.

    II.

Flourished the trumpets:  entered Heart,
 A youth in crimson and gold.
Flourished again:  Brain stood apart,
 Steel-armored, dark and cold.

    III.

Heart’s palfrey caracoled gayly round,
 Heart tra-li-ra’d merrily;
But Brain sat still, with never a sound,
 So cynical-calm was he.

    IV.

Heart’s helmet-crest bore favors three
 From his lady’s white hand caught;
While Brain wore a plumeless casque; not he
 Or favor gave or sought.

    V.

The herald blew; Heart shot a glance
 To find his lady’s eye,
But Brain gazed straight ahead his lance
 To aim more faithfully.

    VI.

They charged, they struck; both fell, both bled.
 Brain rose again, ungloved,
Heart, dying, smiled and faintly said,
 “My love to my beloved!”


Camp French, Wilmington, N.C., May, 1862.