BOOKWORM


Reflections on BELLARION



Picked up an old unsatisfactory piece, offshoot from last year's reading of the novel, and rewrote it today. A full commentary on the conclusion of the novel will appear in Reading Rafael.

TO VALERIA PALAEOLOGO

“I am not good at inference.”

Between the fact and the meaning

a gulf unbridgeable

save by right intent;

only goodwill lays a highway

to limitless horizon.

Pride of race,

Pride in mind’s superior graces,

Intolerance of opposition –

Shall these be the foundation

Of wedded bliss?

The strangler’s cord avoiding,

Your enemy’s flaw exploiting,

Wounded in heroic fight –

Is Bellarion turned true knight

Whose lips you deign to kiss?

Princesses and ladies fair,

If her steady gaze you bear,

Truth shall lead you out of the maze.

~ E.M.R.H.              9 October 2014