THE LAUGHING CAVALIER

Posted by Admin on 24 July 2006, 12:00 am

Is it humour or disdain
that to his smile gives birth –
a compliment a lady paid –
or dalliance with a serving maid
of saucy mien and ample girth –
a victory in love’s campaign?
Or can it be his rapier taught
a lesson in a duel fought
with one essaying to defame
His Majesty the King’s good name –
a combat needing one parade
before the coup-de-grace was made?
A man quite conscious of his worth,
he poses there at ease, benign,
in lace-trimmed doublet superfine,
perhaps consumed with silent mirth,
with tilted hat and small goatee,
insouciant and debonair,
the essence of savoir vivre
which marked the Age of Chivalry.