| |
| AGLAVAINE came to the inn: | |
| They gave him the foulest room. | |
| He, with a heart to win | |
| Love like the rose for bloom, | |
| Slept with the rustling straw for bed | 5 |
| And cobwebbed rafters overhead. | |
| |
| Aglavaine’s red-faced host | |
| Kept revel all night long. | |
| The bar-maid was their toast, | |
| The devil’s flings their song. | 10 |
| Still through the noise he heard the leaves | |
| Tossed in the wind against the eaves. | |
| |
| Aglavaine heard the choir | |
| Chant in the church unseen, | |
| Then, with a heart of fire | 15 |
| For beauty fine and clean, | |
| Ate where a clown might loathe to dine, | |
| While all his fellows reeled with wine. | |
| |
| Aglavaine came to the inn: | |
| Short was their speech and curt. | 20 |
| He of the tender chin, | |
| Lonely and worn and hurt, | |
| Saw through his window-round of sky | |
| God’s pageantry of stars go by. | |
| |
| Aglavaine sang in the sun, | 25 |
| Taking the morning road. | |
| His was the course begun, | |
| His but the firstling load. | |
| They travel far and sup with sin | |
| Who find good quarters at an inn. | 30 |
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