Knight-Errant

Onward he gallops through enchanted gloom.-- The phantoms of the forest, dark and dim, And shadows of vast death environ him-- Onward he spurs victorious over doom. Before his eyes that love’s far fires illume-- Where courage sits, impregnable and grim-- The form and features of her beauty swim, Beckoning him on with looks that fears consume. The thought of her distress, her lips to kiss, Mails him in triple might; and so at last To Lust’s huge keep he comes; its giant wall, Wild-towering, frowning from the precipice: And through its gate, borne like a bugle-blast, O’er night and hell he thunders to his all.