I dreamt that I was dreaming <br />And in my dream beheld <br />A knight in fading armour <br />His name from me withheld. <br />Relentlessly the tolling <br />Did saturate the air, <br />And filled the empty graveyard... <br />The one with no-one there. <br /> <br />His sword within his scabbard <br />Still sharp and virgin clean, <br />I wondered if to battle <br />This knight had ever been? <br />No blood upon the countenance <br />Beneath the iron hood; <br />No answer to my question, <br />The mystery still stood. <br /> <br />Of toil and sad confusion <br />And hatred and disgrace <br />He told me, then I looked again <br />And thought I knew his face; <br />I felt I recognised the voice <br />That whispered soft as mute: <br />'A song will be our epitaph, <br />Sung sweetly on the lute.' <br /> <br />The vision turned and made to leave, <br />I asked him not to go, <br />He drew a little closer saying: <br />'Do you wish to know? <br />The timer drawn of molten glass <br />Is running out of sand; <br />This dream within another <br />You will never understand.' <br /> <br />His life was nearly finished <br />And so, I thought, my dream, <br />I turned away and over <br />To try my sleep redeem; <br />Then dreamt that I had woken <br />Still puzzled by the knight, <br />Then woke again to find that <br />I, like he, had lost the fight. <br /> <br />(Written April/May 1996)<br /><br />John Carter Brown<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/enigma-of-the-knight/
