not if thy love my love can meet:
Whate'er thy worshipful soft tongue shall say,
I'll kiss thine answer, be it yea or nay:
I do but know I love thee, and I pray
To be thy knight until my dying day._

The first two lines, which set forth a suit in terms of trade, demand a
hard, calculating tone, suggestive of large silver dollars. Call this
color dull steel gray. This tone flashes out for a moment in the white
indignation of the third line, softens and warms with the next two
lines, then grows and glows until it reaches a crimson radiance in the
last two lines. Try it!

And now, with "heartsome voice of mellow scorn," let us sound the
message of the "bold straightforward horn."

"Now comfort thee," said he,
"Fair Lady.
For God shall right thy grievous wrong,
And man shall sing thee a true-love song,
Voiced in act his whole life long,
Yea, all thy sweet life long,
Fair Lady.

Where's he that craftily hath said.
The day of chivalry is dead?
I'll prove that lie upon his head,
Or I will die instead,
Fair Lady.

* * * * *

Now by each knight that e'er hath prayed
To fight like a man and love like a maid,
Since Pembroke's life as Pembroke's blade,
I' the scabbard, death was laid,
I dare avouch my faith is bright
That God doth right and God hath might.
Nor time hath changed His hair to white,
Nor His dear love to spite,
Fair Lady.

I doubt no doubts: I strive, and shrive my clay,
And fight my fight in the patient modern way
For true love and for thee--ah me! and pray
To be thy knight until my dying day,
Fair Lady."

Made end that knightly horn, and spurred away,
Into the thick of the melodious fray.

Remember your _key_ is set for you,--the color of the tone is plainly
chosen for you by Mr. Lanier. Not red nor yellow, but a blending of the
two. _Orange_, is it not? Will not an orange tone give us the feel of
heartsome confidence behind and through the mellow scorn of the
knight's message? Try it! Let the two primary colors, red and yellow,
enter in varying degrees according to, or following, the emotional
variation in the thought, as the knight or the lover dominates in the
message. In the first seven lines the tone glows with the love radiance
and the orange deepens toward red. With the next five lines the lover
yields to the knight,