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Chapter 13: BALLAD FOR GLOOM

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About This Book

A compact sequence of lyrics and narrative poems reimagines medieval troubadour and classical voices through a modernist lens. The collection mixes stylized adaptations and persona pieces, ranging from jaunty ballads to mournful elegies, and tests forms such as sestina, sonnet, and canzone. Themes of love, loss, memory, exile, and the craft of song recur amid dense, allusive imagery. Shifts in diction and perspective create a chorus of historical and mythic echoes, prioritizing formal experimentation and vocal variety over linear narrative while inviting attentive, cross-temporal reading.

BALLAD FOR GLOOM

FOR God, our God, is a gallant foe

That playeth behind the veil.

I have loved my God as a child at heart

That seeketh deep bosoms for rest,

I have loved my God as maid to man,

But lo, this thing is best:

To love your God as a gallant foe

that plays behind the veil,

To meet your God as the night winds meet

beyond Arcturus’ pale.

I have played with God for a woman,

I have staked with my God for truth,

I have lost to my God as a man, clear eyed;

His dice be not of ruth.

For I am made as a naked blade,

But hear ye this thing in sooth:

Who loseth to God as man to man

Shall win at the turn of the game.

I have drawn my blade where the lightnings meet

But the ending is the same:

Who loseth to God as the sword blades lose

Shall win at the end of the game.

For God, our God, is a gallant foe

that playeth behind the veil,

Whom God deigns not to overthrow

hath need of triple mail.