Silent Sentinels: The Barons' Pantoum - Fighter Poem - pantoum

Silent Sentinels: The Barons' Pantoum

(pantoum)

As silent sentinels the barons stand
Amid the penants and the panoply
The stalward pillars of our Crescent Land
On verdant fields of sands along the sea

Amid the penants and the panoply
Azure, argent, purpure, gules and or,
On verdant fields of sands along the sea
Where regal hopefuls battle to the fore

Azure, argent, purpure, gules and or
Pavillions gay enring the tourney field
Where regal hopefuls battle to the fore
With whirling blades that cut and kill...or yield

Pavillions gay enring the tourney field
The consorts clasp their hands as champions
With whilrling blades that cut and kill...or yield
Advance their cause or bring it to an end

The consorts clasp their hands as champions,
Their eyes upon the scepter and the throne,
Advance their cause or bring it to an end
For only one can win the day alone

Their eyes upon the scepter and the throne
--But spare a glance each challenger to gauge--
For only one can win the day alone
And set the course of Caid's coming age.

But spare a glance each challenger to gauge
For one among the rest might gain the chance
And set the course of Caid's coming age
A'whirling to his new unmeasured dance

For one among the rest will gain the chance
By martial might to lead the populace
A'whirling to his new unmeasured dance
While some stand by to minimize the fuss

By martial might to lead the populace
Is royal perview won by skill and main
While some stand by to minimize the fuss
That naturally blows from reign to reign

This royal perview won by skill and main
--Sometimes a bracing wind of zephyr force--
That naturally blows from reign to reign
Is tempered by the ones who stand the course

Sometimes a bracing wind of zephyr force
Meets stalwart pillars of our Crescent Land,
So tempered by the ones who stay the course
As silent sentinels the barons stand.

--Mistress Philippa Llewelyn Schuyler