Page:Tristram of Lyonesse and other poems (IA tristramoflyonesswinrich).pdf/68

 From each quick shock of spears on either side, Reeled the strong steeds heavily, haggard-eyed And heartened high with passion of their pride As sheer the stout spears shocked again, and flew Sharp-splintering: then, his sword as each knight drew, They flashed and foined full royally, so long That but to see so fair a strife and strong A man might well have given out of his life One year's void space forlorn of love or strife. As when a bright north-easter, great of heart, Scattering the strengths of squadrons, hurls apart Ship from ship labouring violently, in such toil As earns but ruin—with even so strong recoil Back were the steeds hurled from the spear-shock, fain And foiled of triumph: then with tightened rein And stroke of spur, inveterate, either knight Bore in again upon his foe with might, Heart-hungry for the hot-mouthed feast of fight And all athirst of mastery: but full soon The jarring notes of that tempestuous tune Fell, and its mighty music made of hands Contending, clamorous through the loud waste lands, Broke at once off; and shattered from his steed Fell, as a mainmast ruining, Palamede, Stunned: and those lovers left him where he lay, And lightly through green lawns they rode away. There was a bower beyond man's eye more fair Than ever summer dews and sunniest air Fed full with rest and radiance till the boughs Had wrought a roof as for a holier house