Miracle, and Other Poems

<h2 id="id00103" style="margin-top: 4em">THE KNIGHT-ERRANT</h2> <p id="id00104">Keen in his blood ran the old mad desire<br/> To right the world's wrongs and champion truth;<br/> Deep in his eyes shone a heaven-lit fire,<br/> And royal and radiant day-dreams of youth!<br/></p> <p id="id00105">Gracious was he to both beggar and stranger,<br/> And for a rose tossed from fair finger-tips<br/> He would have ridden hard-pressed through all danger,<br/> The rose on his heart and a song on his lips!<br/></p> <p id="id00106">All the king's foes he counted his foemen;<br/> His not to say that a cause could be lost;<br/> Spirits like his faced the enemies' bowmen<br/> On long vanished fields—nor counted the cost.<br/></p> <p id="id00107">Wide was his out-look and far was his vision;<br/> Soul-fretting trifles he sent down the wind;<br/> Small griefs gained only his cheerful derision,—<br/> God's weather always was fair to his mind.<br/></p> <p id="id00108">But he would comfort a child who was crying,<br/> Knightly his deed to all such in distress;<br/> Never a beast by the road-side lay dying<br/> He did not stoop to with gentle caress.<br/></p> <p id="id00109">And by the old, and the sad, and the broken,<br/> Often he lingered, a well-beloved guest;<br/> Dear was his voice, whatever the word spoken,<br/> Sweetening their day with a song or a jest.<br/></p> <p id="id00110">In the far times of brave ballad and story,<br/> Men of his make kept the gates of the sea,<br/> Wrought mighty deeds of power and glory,<br/> Scattered their tyrants, and set the land free!<br/></p> <p id="id00111">* * * * *</p> <p id="id00112">In the far times when perchance hearts were stronger,<br/> When for a faith men could face death alone,<br/> And it would seem that love lasted longer,<br/> Such a white soul would have come to its own.<br/></p> <p id="id00113">Down in the city the people but noted<br/> One who was silent when things went awry,<br/> Toiled at dull tasks, and was strangely devoted<br/> To small deeds of kindness that others passed by.<br/></p> <p id="id00114">Down in the city the people but noted<br/> One who thought little of wealth and its ways;<br/> One whose true words were full often misquoted,<br/> One who laughed lightly at blame or at praise.<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />