A Poem For Sunday

Dish poetry editor Alice Quinn:

This poem by an anonymous author, framed as a riddle as so many early lyrics are, is from Volume One of Poets of the English Language: Langland to Spenser, edited by W.H. Auden and Norman Holmes Pearson and published in 1950 in The Viking Portable Library.

I persist in thinking the knight has posed four questions.

“The Riddling Knight”:

There were three sisters fair and bright,

Jennifer gentle and rosemaree,

And they three loved one valiant knight.

As the dew flies over the mulberry tree.

The eldest sister let him in,

And barred the door with a silver pin.

The second sister made his bed,

And placed soft pillows under his head.

The youngest sister, fair and bright,

Was resolved for to wed with this valiant knight.

“And if you can answer questions three,

O then, fair maid, I will marry with thee.

“What is louder than an horn,

And what is sharper than a thorn?”

“Thunder is louder than an horn,

And hunger is sharper than a thorn.”

“What is broader than the way,

And what is deeper than the sea?”

“Love is broader than the way,

And hell is deeper than the sea.”

“And now, fair maid, I will marry with thee.”

(Photo by T. Kiya)