The Troubadour. Canto 1 C Ballad

Letitia Elizabeth Landon 1802 (Chelsea) – 1838 (Cape Coast)



BALLAD.

HE raised the golden cup from the board,
    It sparkled with purple wealth,
He kist the brim her lip had prest,
    And drank to his ladye's health.

Ladye, to-night I pledge thy name,
    To-morrow thou shalt pledge mine;
Ever the smile of beauty should light
    The victor's blood-red wine.

There are some flowers of brightest bloom
    Amid thy beautiful hair,
Give me those roses, they shall be
    The favour I will wear.

For ere their colour is wholly gone,
    Or the breath of their sweetness fled,
They shall be placed in thy curls again,
    But dy'd of a deeper red.

The warrior rode forth in the morning light,
    And beside his snow-white plume
Were the roses wet with the sparkling dew,
    Like pearls on their crimson bloom.

The maiden stood on her highest tower,
    And watch'd her knight depart;
She dash'd the tear aside, but her hand
    Might not still her beating heart.

All day she watch'd the distant clouds

    Float on the distant air,
A crucifix upon her neck,
    And on her lips a prayer.

The sun went down, and twilight came
    With her banner of pearlin grey,
And then afar she saw a band
    Wind down the vale their way.

They came like victors, for high o'er their ranks
    Were their crimson colours borne;
And a stranger penon droop'd beneath,
    But that was bow'd and torn:

But she saw no white steed first in the ranks,
    No rider that spurr'd before;
But the evening shadows were closing fast,
    And she could see no more.

She turn'd from her watch on the lonely tower
    In haste to reach the hall,
And as she sprang down the winding stair
    She heard the drawbridge fall.

A hundred harps their welcome rung,
    Then paused as if in fear;
The ladye enter'd the hall, and saw
    Her true knight stretch'd on his bier!
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Submitted by Madeleine Quinn on June 08, 2016

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:37 min read
133

Quick analysis:

Scheme XAXA BCDC EFXF XGXG DEXE HIJI XFXF BKJK LMXM LNXN HOFO XXXX
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,734
Words 311
Stanzas 12
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Letitia Elizabeth Landon was an English poet. Born 14th August 1802 at 25 Hans Place, Chelsea, she lived through the most productive period of her life nearby, at No.22. A precocious child with a natural gift for poetry, she was driven by the financial needs of her family to become a professional writer and thus a target for malicious gossip (although her three children by William Jerdan were successfully hidden from the public). In 1838, she married George Maclean, governor of Cape Coast Castle on the Gold Coast, whence she travelled, only to die a few months later (15th October) of a fatal heart condition. Behind her post-Romantic style of sentimentality lie preoccupations with art, decay and loss that give her poetry its characteristic intensity and in this vein she attempted to reinterpret some of the great male texts from a woman’s perspective. Her originality rapidly led to her being one of the most read authors of her day and her influence, commencing with Tennyson in England and Poe in America, was long-lasting. However, Victorian attitudes led to her poetry being misrepresented and she became excluded from the canon of English literature, where she belongs. more…

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