Mystic and Cavalier

Lionel Johnson (1867–1902) · 1895

iambic pentameter · AABB · 36 lines · from Poems

Go from me: I am one of those, who fall.What! hath no cold wind swept your heart at all,In my sad company? Before the end,Go from me, dear my friend!

Yours are the victories of light: your feetRest from good toil, where rest is brave and sweet.But after warfare in a mourning gloom,I rest in clouds of doom.

Have you not read so, looking in these eyes?Is it the common light of the pure skies,Lights up their shadowy depths? The end is set:Though the end be not yet.

When gracious music stirs, and all is bright,And beauty triumphs through a courtly night;When I too joy, a man like other men:Yet, am I like them, then?

And in the battle, when the horsemen sweepAgainst a thousand deaths, and fall on sleep:Who ever sought that sudden calm, if ISought not? Yet, could not die.

Seek with thine eyes to pierce this crystal sphere:Canst read a fate there, prosperous and clear?Only the mists, only the weeping clouds:Dimness, and airy shrouds.

Beneath, what angels are at work? What powersPrepare the secret of the fatal hours?See! the mists tremble, and the clouds are stirred:When comes the calling word?

The clouds are breaking from the crystal ball,Breaking and clearing: and I look to fall.When the cold winds and airs of portent sweep,My spirit may have sleep.

O rich and sounding voices of the air!Interpreters and prophets of despair:Priests of a fearful sacrament! I come,To make with you mine home.

Words in this poem

courtly a.: Relating or belonging to a court. [From Court.]
portent n.: That which portends, or foretoken; esp., that which portends evil; a sign of coming calamity; an omen; a sign. [L. portentum. See Portend.]
sacrament n.: The oath of allegiance taken by Roman soldiers; hence, a sacred ceremony used to impress an obligation; a solemn oath-taking; an oath. [L. sacramentum an oath, a sacred thing, a mystery, a sacrament, fr. sacrare to declare as sacred, sacer sacred: cf. F. sacrament. See Sacred.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Mystic and Cavalier is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #66520; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Lionel Johnson, Mystic and Cavalier, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-lionel-poems/mystic-and-cavalier.html, id L12478.

Form and metre

Mystic and Cavalier is 36 lines in 9 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).

See other poems in iambic pentameter.

Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.

Rhyme words, stanza by stanza

The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.

1 AABB fall^A · all^A · end^B · friend^B
2 AABB feet^A · sweet^A · gloom^B · doom^B
3 AABB eyes^A · skies^A · set^B · yet^B
4 AABB bright^A · night^A · men^B · then^B
5 AABB sweep^A · sleep^A · i^B · die^B
6 AABB sphere^A · clear^A · clouds^B · shrouds^B
7 AABB powers^A · hours^A · stirred^B · word^B
8 AABB ball^A · fall^A · sweep^B · sleep^B
9 AABB air^A · despair^A · come^B · home^B

Scansion, line by line

Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.

Line	Syl.	Stress
Go from me: I am one of those, who fall.	10	··········
What! hath no cold wind swept your heart at all,	10	··········
In my sad company? Before the end,	10	···/˘˘····
Go from me, dear my friend!	6	······
Yours are the victories of light: your feet	10	···/˘˘····
Rest from good toil, where rest is brave and sweet.	10	··········
But after warfare in a mourning gloom,	10	···/···/˘·
I rest in clouds of doom.	6	······
Have you not read so, looking in these eyes?	10	·····/˘···
Is it the common light of the pure skies,	10	···/˘·····
Lights up their shadowy depths? The end is set:	10	···/˘·····
Though the end be not yet.	6	······
When gracious music stirs, and all is bright,	10	·/˘/˘·····
And beauty triumphs through a courtly night;	10	·/˘/˘··/˘·
When I too joy, a man like other men:	10	·······/˘·
Yet, am I like them, then?	6	······
And in the battle, when the horsemen sweep	10	···/˘··/˘·
Against a thousand deaths, and fall on sleep:	10	···/˘·····
Who ever sought that sudden calm, if I	10	·/˘··/˘···
Sought not? Yet, could not die.	6	······
Seek with thine eyes to pierce this crystal sphere:	10	·······/˘·
Canst read a fate there, prosperous and clear?	10	·····/˘˘··
Only the mists, only the weeping clouds:	10	/˘··/˘·/˘·
Dimness, and airy shrouds.	6	/˘·/˘·
Beneath, what angels are at work? What powers	11	···/˘····/˘
Prepare the secret of the fatal hours?	11	˘/·/˘··/˘/˘
See! the mists tremble, and the clouds are stirred:	10	···/˘·····
When comes the calling word?	6	···/˘·
The clouds are breaking from the crystal ball,	10	···/˘··/˘·
Breaking and clearing: and I look to fall.	10	/˘·/˘·····
When the cold winds and airs of portent sweep,	10	·······/˘·
My spirit may have sleep.	6	·/˘···
O rich and sounding voices of the air!	10	···/˘/˘···
Interpreters and prophets of despair:	10	˘/˘˘·/˘·˘/
Priests of a fearful sacrament! I come,	10	···/˘/˘˘··
To make with you mine home.	6	······

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