Do neglect all your dear creations,
And all people and worldly contacts;
Do neglect all your hot earthly passions,
Think in days, and say prayers in nights. ...
Halls grew darker and somehow faded.
Grates of windows drowned in black.
Every knight, every beautiful lady
Knew the tiding: "The Queen's deadly sick." ...
There's a morn demon. He's of gauze and light,
The happy one - with golden hair.
Like skies, is blue his tunic's airy flood,
All - in a play of brilliants, fair. ...
You are but millions. Our unnumbered nations
Are as the sands upon the sounding shore.
We are the Scythians! We are the slit-eyed Asians!
Try to wage war with us-you'll try no more! ...
I thought to do a deed of chivalry,
An act of worth, which haply in her sight
Who was my mistress should recorded be
And of the nations. And, when thus the fight
Faltered and men once bold with faces white
Turned this and that way in excuse to flee,
I only stood, and by the foeman's might
Was overborne and mangled cruelly.
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