Page:Tristram of Lyonesse and other poems (IA tristramoflyonesswinrich).pdf/64

 And many a dawn to many a fiery noon Blew prelude, when the horn's heart-kindling tune Lit the live woods with sovereign sound of mirth Before the mightiest huntsman hailed on earth Lord of its lordliest pleasure, where he rode Hard by her rein whose peerless presence glowed Not as that white queen's of the virgin hunt Once, whose crown-crescent braves the night-wind's brunt, But with the sun for frontlet of a queenlier front. For where the flashing of her face was turned As lightning was the fiery light that burned From eyes and brows enkindled more with speed And rapture of the rushing of her steed Than once with only beauty; and her mouth Was as a rose athirst that pants for drouth Even while it laughs for pleasure of desire, And all her heart was as a leaping fire. Yet once more joy they took of woodland ways Than came of all those flushed and fiery days When the loud air was mad with life and sound, Through many a dense green mile, of horn and hound Before the king's hunt going along the wind, And ere the timely leaves were changed or thinned, Even in mid maze of summer. For the knight Forth was once ridden toward some frontier fight Against the lewd folk of the Christless lands That warred with wild and intermittent hands Against the king's north border; and there came A knight unchristened yet of unknown name,