Well, weŽve heard a bit about poetry words, and cavorting and carminative. Is it all right for me to use inversion in this poem? And the words `vassalageŽ, `ambassageŽ and `thineŽ? Or have I bid fond and final adieu to the last remnants of what little sense I might have been born with?
Courtly Love
Gladly would I assume that vassalage
That could, in times past, lover firmly knit
To mistress, performing my ambassage
On bended knee, hoping to please by wit
And meekness. An office IŽd claim as mine,
Subservient to your will and show it
To the world, should you require, that thine
Is the word I must obey, bestow it
Like a gift. IŽd study ways of moving
You to look with firm but loving aspect
Aspect on the pain IŽd suffer in my loving,
Heedless, if need be, of all self-respect.
We moderns think such bargains cannot be,
Yet desire would make a willing slave of me.
Mike
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