The Maiden of Time (sonnet sequence, comments appreciated)

O the Maiden of time! Is there fairer a maid
Who the knights and apostles seek all the day?
This Lady of Ages for whom lives been laid
Who Time though it fights her with ardor each day
Cannot vanquish her beauty or light of her eyes,
For she is greater than Time, so ancient is she
That no man can e’er catch her until he dies
And has found what a conniving thing that she be.
Her jeweléd array has garnered envy
Of the seraphs of Heav’n, how they loathe her display
With an impotent rage far more vast than the sea,
That they burn at her sweetness throughout all the day.
  Mortal men let alone cannot seek her and live
  Though they seek for her heart and will anything give.


But it happened one day that a knight who was bold
Arrived from the Shires to conquer Her hand;
His sword was of steel and his armor of gold;
No greater a knight was there then in the land!
So he called on her window that lay on the cloud:
“Fair Lady of Ages, I call thee to me
To be courted and wed!”  he beseeched aloud.
So she flew to the window and called out with glee,
“No mortal can capture the Maiden of Time,
And yet you have come with hopes of conquest
Of my hand and my land of all-perfect clime?
Do not think me a fool to submit to this test!
  She dashed to her horse which was Venus, her steed,
  And she rode across Space indicating her lead.


To the top of the dome where the firmament speaks,
the fingertips of the world night lose their domain
in this place free from time, all the years and the weeks,
the Squalor of Ages brought down once again,
ere she says to the knight as he rides 'cross the sky:
"Vos es non validus ut reperio mihi. Mortal, I cannot be found,
pray return to your homeland, and not dare to try,
for far greater suitors have met with the ground,
as they sought and they sought to capture my heart."
But he sought and he sought and he raced like the wind;
from his quest he never would seek to depart,
so he sought her just as he would seek the White Hind,
  And with equal result, this poor squire would see
  that his maiden spoke truth with her warning decree.


With sorrow he fell but with sorrow he rose,
For this knight would not fall like the others had done—
‘No no,’ thought he. ‘I am better than those;
Therefore I shall be her suitor, the one!’
And with gusto he rose from his spot on the gound,
And he looked ‘cross the void for the Empress of Old,
he looked and he saw she was naught to be found,
But she’d left a trail for this knight so bold,
from the dust of the Heavens that now lay where she rode.
So the champion ventured down her golden path;
With resolve down the highway he strode,
And the bandits, they suffered all under his wrath--
  As he sought the Maiden of Time,
  Over mountain and hill would he climb.


And it did come to pass that his ventures would lead
To the dark of the Valley of Shadow;
For she’d traveled ‘cross lands upon Venus, her steed,
That would all mortal Men disavow.
Ere he laid down his head by the stump of a tree,
The Maiden returned to him then
And she kissed his brow facing mortality,
And she cried at this inescapable Amen
To the man who had followed her e’en unto death,
With his sword clenched in hand as he
Lay there, his head encircled by a wreath
That would be his sole tomb from the surf and the sea.
  And the Maiden of Time who had all she would need,
  Turned and saw but a horse in Venus, her steed.


And without her fair knight to pursue her of late,
She found that her trappings now lost their sheen,
And the Cherubs and Seraphs now laughed at her fate,
Doomed to think tragic thoughts of what might have been.
But she would take this not, no, she took out the blade
Of God Himself on his throne from above,
That she might such a terrible doom evade,
And then join her dead mortal Love.
But the voice of the angels steadied her hand,
And they called to her: “mortals are gone, fair maid!
Do take one of us and in this blessed land
We will live forever, if you release your blade!”
  But she heard not their words, with fervor did she strike
  That she might join the mortals and dead alike.


              So the Maiden of time and her love for the knight
              Who pursued her until his death overtook,
              Together through time would they fly out of sight
              And never again her Love she forsook.






-D.B.