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LYONESSE
By R. JERE BLACK, Jr.
Beneath the softly sobbing sea,
Sad cities crumble silently,
Pale kings peer down from futile thrones,
Pale queens lament with soundless moans,
Recalling vanished loveliness,
In long-forgotten Lyonesse.
Pale ladies smile so eerily,
The years creep by so wearily,
The surges sob so drearily,
In far, forsaken Lyonesse.
Pale knights sway restless to and fro
When Neptune's distant bugles blow;
Pale nuns, among the pallid weeds,
Count ceaselessly their coral beads,
With mild and gentle wofulness
In weird and wistful Lyonesse.
Pale lovers watch, with wan despair,
Pale maidens' floating golden hair;
Pale jesters' tarnished cap-and-bells
Chime faintly with the ocean swells
A requiem of tenderness
For lost and lonely Lyonesse.
Pale ladies smile so eerily,
The years creep by so wearily,
The surges sob so drearily,
In dead and drownèd Lyonesse.
