The Equinox (Volume I, Number IV)

78 XXX STARRED is the blackness of the sky; Wide is the sweep of the cold plain Where good Sir Palamede doth lie, Keen on the Beast-slot once again. All day he rode; all night he lay With eyes wide open to the stars, Seeking in many a secret way The key to unlock his prison bars. Beneath him, hark! the marvel sounds! The Beast that questeth horribly. As if a thirty couple hounds Are in his belly questeth he. Beneath him? Heareth he aright? He leaps to’s feet—a wonder shews: Steep dips a stairway from the light To what obscurity God knows. Still never a tremor shakes his soul (God praise thee, knight of adamant }) ; He plunges to that gruesome goal Firm as an old bull-elephant!