Poem by Louise Imogen Guiney

The Chantry

A loyal lady young; a knight for honour slain:
All beauty and all quiet sealed of old upon
Their images that lie in coif and morion.
A moment since, through rifts and pauses of the rain,
The day shot in; the lancet window showered again
Its moth-like play of silver, rose, and sapphire; shone
What arms of warring duchies glorious, bygone:
Lombardy, Desmond, Malta, suitored Aquitaine!
The while, aloft in Art’s immortal summertide,
Fair is the carven hostel, fortunate either guest,
And men of moodier England pass, and hear outside
Fury of toil alone, and fate’s diurnal storm,
Hearts with the King of Saints, hearts beating light and warm!
To these your courage give, that these attain your rest.

1. Florentin
2. Peter Rugg the Bostonian
3. Writ in My Lord Clarendon’s “History of the Rebellion”
4. Vergniaud in the Tumbril
5. A Madonna of Domenico Ghirlandajo

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