THE knightliest of the knightly race That, since the days of old, Have kept the lamp of chivalry Alight in hearts of gold; The kindliest of the kindly band That, rarely hating ease, Yet rode with Spotswood round the land, And Raleigh round the seas; Who climbed the blue Virginian hills Against embattled foes, And planted there, in valleys fair, The lily and the rose; Whose fragrance lives in many lands, Whose beauty stars the earth, And lights the hearths of happy homes With loveliness and worth. We thought they slept! -- the sons who kept The names of noble sires, And slumbered while the darkness crept Around their vigil fires; But aye the "Golden Horseshoe" knights Their old Dominion keep, Whose foes have found enchanted ground, But not a knight asleep. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...JIM BLUDSO [OF THE PRAIRIE BELLE] by JOHN MILTON HAY COQUETTE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THE WASPS: THE TRIAL OF THE DOG by ARISTOPHANES A MIGRANT THRUSH by MARY RUSSELL BARTLETT LAST DAYS OF QUEEN ELIZABETH by EDWARD GEORGE EARLE LYTTON BULWER-LYTTON |