Poem by Louise Imogen Guiney

Valediction: R. L. S., 1894

When from the vista of the Book I shrink,
From lauded pens that earn ignoble wage,
Begetting nothing joyous, nothing sage,
Nor keep with Shakespeare’s use one golden link;
When heavily my sanguine spirits sink,
To read too plain on each impostor page
Only of kings the broken lineage,
Well for my peace if then on thee I think,
Louis: our priest of letters, and our knight
With whose familiar baldric hope is girt,
From whose young hands she bears the Grail away.
All glad, all great! Truer because thou wert,
I am and must be; and in thy known light
Go down to dust, content with this my day.

1. Of Joan’s Youth
2. Spring Nightfall
3. The Vigil-at-Arms
4. Florentin
5. A Madonna of Domenico Ghirlandajo

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