Classic Poem

The Eleventh Couple.

Master T HOMAS S IDNEY ,

Master R OBERT A LEXANDER .

Thus long hath dainty Sidney sit and seen
Honour and Fortune hover in the air,
That from the glorious beams of England's eye
Came streaming; Sidney, at which name I sigh,
Because I lack the Sidney that I loved,
And yet I love the Sidneys that survive.
Thus long, I say, sat Sidney and beheld
The shivers fly of many a shaken spear;
When, mounted on a courser trapp'd in white,
And throughly well-appointed he and his,
Pure sparks of virtue kindling honour's fire,
He thought he might, and, for he might, he would
Reach at this glory, — fair befall him still! —
And to the tilt, impatient of delay,
He comes, encounter'd with a threatening point
That Alexander menaced to him fast,
A valorous and a lusty gentleman,
Well-fitted with his armour and his steed;
And him young Sidney sits, and had he charged
The Macedonian Alexander's staff,
He had been answer'd by that valiant youth:
So well behaved himself this fair young knight,
As Paris had to great Achilles' lance
Applied his tender fingers and his force.