Re: greatest quality of Knig

[MHWag@aol.com]

Poster: MHWag@aol.com

Countess Brigit, at the 12th (13th, 14th), Night while she was our Queen,
sponsored a poetry competition with this theme.  I felt that the greatest
quality of a Knight (or any peer) is that they act in love of something
greater than themself.  Nearly three years later, my words have found some
poetic form

What fires the warrior's soul?  The song of steel
In battle fierce 'gainst foes would his land harm,
The sword-edge keen, the heft of axe and shield,
Proud cries of victory and war's alarm.

These virtues has the warrior:  strength of arm,
And fearlessness of will to face his foe,
With mercy to the weaker and disarmed,
Fidelity to lady, sire, and oath.

The Knight serves God above, his King below,
His duty and delight to win the field,
Not onerous, but honorable, for lo
It is in love for them the Knight does kneel.

The craftsman burns to make perfection real.
The muses' gift received, to man conveys
In verses sweet, in shapely symmetry
His heav'nly vision to our earthly space.

This discipline the craftsman must embrace:
To seek forever furth'rance of his art,
To recreate the first creation's grace,
And to apprentice this care to impart.

Though laurel wreath does his achievement mark,
Its own reward will his endeavours yield.
His quest enthralls him, claims his heart,
For love of beauty does the Laurel kneel.

Honor through service shall itself reveal.
Words without deeds are naught but senseless sound,
'Tis actions speak of that nobility
Bestowed on he who serves or wears the Crown.

Service is owed by those in fealty bound,
And by the noble heart is humbly given.
This virtue in the gentle heart abounds,
And in this order gain we glimpse of heaven.

Beyond the measure owed, the Pelican
Sheds his heart's blood, the wounds of man to heal, 
And greater love than this's not given to man.
Love, above all, is Queen to whom all kneel.

Humbly submitted by Lady Aileen McDonagh 
  
 
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