ABSTRACT
John Gambril Nicholson. From Love in Earnest, 1892. Dedicated ‘To W.E.M.’ Old memories of the Table Round In Percival and Lancelot dwell, Clement and Bernard bring the sound Of anthems in the cloister-cell, And Leonard vies with Lionel In stately step and kingly frame, And Kenneth speaks of field and fell, And Earnest gets my heart a-flame. One name can make my pulses bound, No peer it owns, nor parallel, By it is Vivian’s sweetness drowned, And Roland, full as organ-swell; Though Frank may ring like silver bell, And Cecil softer music claim, They cannot work the miracle, – ’Tis Earnest gets my heart a-flame. Cyril is lordly, Stephen crowned With deathless wreaths of asphodel, Oliver whispers peace profound, Herbert takes arms his foes to quell, Eustace with sheaves is laden well, Christopher has a nobler fame, And Michael storms the gates of Hell, But Earnest gets my heart a-flame. Envoy My little Prince, Love’s mystic spell Lights all the letters of your name, And you, if no one else, can tell Why Earnest gets my heart a-flame.
