<SPAN name="chap008"></SPAN>
<h3> THE YOUNG KNIGHTS </h3>
<p class="poem">
Now they remain to us forever young<br/>
Who with such splendor gave their youth away;<br/>
Perpetual Spring is their inheritance,<br/>
Though they have lived in Flanders and in France<br/>
A round of years, in one remembered day.<br/></p>
<p class="poem">
They drained life's goblet as a joyous draught<br/>
And left within the cup no bitter lees.<br/>
Sweetly they answered to the King's behest,<br/>
And gallantly fared forth upon a quest,<br/>
Beset by foes on land and on the seas.<br/></p>
<p class="poem">
So in the ancient world hath bloomed again<br/>
The rose of old romance—red as of yore;<br/>
The flower of high emprise hath whitely blown<br/>
Above the graves of those we call our own,<br/>
And we will know its fragrance evermore.<br/></p>
<p class="poem">
Now if their deeds were written with the stars,<br/>
In golden letters on the midnight sky<br/>
They would not care. They were so young, and dear,<br/>
They loved the best the things that were most near,<br/>
And gave no thought to glory far and high.<br/></p>
<p class="poem">
They need no shafts of marble pure and cold—<br/>
No painted windows radiantly bright;<br/>
Across our hearts their names are carven deep—<br/>
In waking dreams, and in the dreams of sleep,<br/>
They bring us still ineffable delight.<br/></p>
<p class="poem">
Methinks heaven's gates swing open very wide<br/>
To welcome in a host so fair and strong;<br/>
Perchance the unharmed angels as they sing,<br/>
May envy these the battle-scars they bring,<br/>
And sigh e'er they take up the triumph song!<br/></p>
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