ABSTRACT
Frederick William Rolfe (Baron Corvo) and John Gambril Nicholson. From Love in Earnest, 1892. When twilight wrapped the tall cathedral spire, With eyes uplifted in adoring mood To the white Christ upon the Holy Rood He sang at Vespers in the darkening choir; Now, as the midnight-moon mounts ever higher, With outstretched arms he hangs within the wood, The awful wings of Death above him brood – Martyred to glut the Hebrews’ foul desire. Fair as the Boy that Mary loved was he In chanter’s garb, nor has the beauty fled From his still form with blood-stained limbs outspread; The shadows deepen round the lonely tree, But through the gathering gloom the angels see The nimbus forming round his drooping head.
