from Geoffrey Rudel or The Pilgrim of Love
by John Graham (1836)
from Canto I
Oh wherefore is it that the spirit tums,
E'en in its happiest mood, to gaze on high?
Snatch'd from that home of old, perchance it yearns
Once more to join its fountain in the sky.
Here sepulchred in clay, it quickly learns
To hate the earthly clods that o'er it lie,
And heav'nward thus in fancied freedom springs,
Or ever death has furnish'd it with wings:-
Then falls again to earth, as to her nest
The wearied lark more sweetly sinks at night,
Than when at mom joy-wafted from its breast,
She hymn'd her matin-carol to the light.
Thus did he fold, once more on earth a guest,
His soul-wings trembling from their heav'nly flight;
Shrouding each birdlike thought within his brain,
Till morn should stir its airy plumes again.
from Canto III
And Rudel knew not that the star, whose light
Thus hover'd over his path, to death was leading;
He deem'd not that the flame, which shone so bright
Within his breast, upon its blood was feeding.
His heart's disease was love - then what could blight
His soul, thus onward to its object speeding?
He could not dream of dying - death had nought
In common with the creature whom he sought.
'Twas a sad sight to see him fade away,
The brave, the good, the gifted, and the young,
Ending too soon, like an unfinished lay
When half forgot by him that should have sung.
Oh, Death! foul epicure, why shouldst thou prey
Thus ever on the heart that would have clung
Most zealously to life, and wander by
With scorn the weary ones who seek to die?
Notes
John Graham (fl. 1830-1840)
This huge poem, running to around 260 stanzas, is the longest
treatment of the Rudel legend, as well as the most obscure. Very
few biographical details are available for its author, John Graham,
aside from his residence at Wadham College, Oxford. Two other
works have survived: Granada (1833) and A Vision of Fair
Spirits (1834). Graharn changes the name of the Countess to
Lucinde, and invents a squire, Leon, to accompany Rudel. The
stanzas reproduced here are XLI & XLII from the First Canto, and
XII & XXVI from the Third Canto.
