The Certain Hour (Dizain des Poëtes)

by James Branch Cabell

  BELHS CAVALIERS

  "_For this RAIMBAUT DE VAQUIERAS lived at a time when prolonged habitsof extra-mundane contemplation, combined with the decay of realknowledge, were apt to volatilize the thoughts and aspirations of thebest and wisest into dreamy unrealities, and to lend a false air ofmysticism to love. . . . It is as if the intellect and the will hadbecome used to moving paralytically among visions, dreams, and mysticterrors, weighed down with torpor._"

  Fair friend, since that hour I took leave of thee I have not slept nor stirred from off my knee, But prayed alway to God, S. Mary's Son, To give me back my true companion; And soon it will be Dawn.

  Fair friend, at parting, thy behest to me Was that all sloth I should eschew and flee, And keep good Watch until the Night was done: Now must my Song and Service pass for none? For soon it will be Dawn.

  RAIMBAUT DE VAQUIERAS.--_Aubade, from F. York Powell's version_.