Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE EYE OF MY LORD THE KING by E. LYTTLETON FOX

First Line: KEEN AS THE POINT OF THE STEEL-SHOD LANCE
Last Line: "OF THE EYE OF MY LORD THE KING?"
Subject(s): YALE UNIVERSITY;
KEEN as the point of the steel-shod lance
At his silver saddle-bow,
Black as the hair of a stripling born
Where the lotus lilies blow,
Stern as the roar of the wind-swept sea
When the gulls are skimming low;
And there's never a peasant did not pale,
Nor ever a lord that did not quail,
Nor a henchman's heart that did not fail
'Neath the Eye of My Lord the King.

"Hoho!" laughed the crow from the ivied wall,
"For a pair of eyes to conquer all
-- 'Tis a wondrous silly thing."

True as the hearts of the hundred knights
That fly his pennons free,
Soft as the perfume-laden breeze
That wafts o'er a Southern Sea,
Kind as the soul of our gracious queen
When she prays on bended knee;
And there's never a maid in the broad realms nigh,
Be she castle-born or shepherdess shy,
That did not gaze to earth and sigh
'Neath the Eye of My Lord the King.

"Hoho!" laughed the crow from the moat below,
"For a pair of eyes to witch them so
-- 'Tis a passing foolish thing."

Cold as a link of the drawbridge chain
At the purple tinge of day,
Dull as the mien of a mountain pool
When the mist hangs thick and gray,
Still as a mouldering donjon keep
Where crawling lizards play,
And there's never a lord to bend him low,
Nor even a maiden's cheek to glow,
For the flame has died with a broadsword blow
From the Eye of My Lord the King.

"Hoho!" laughed the crow as he perched near by,
"Not all birds dine on a kingly eye.

-- 'Tis a wondrous lucky thing!
Here's a royal feast for a year and a day.
Now where is a feather of reason, pray,
In the terrible things the people say
Of the Eye of My Lord the King?"



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