This opulent tribute saturates every line with golden imagery, from “tresses spun in molten streams” to “eyes bright with mirrored suns.” Plahm positions himself as a knight in devotion, his “armor clinking” as he bows and kneels before his Lady. The poem oscillates between myth and reality—is she divine or simply his “gleam”? The answer, of course, is both. What elevates this beyond mere flattery is the self-aware coda: after all the gilded grandeur, tomorrow’s inspiration will be “laying a brick.” This grounding final image acknowledges that even the most exalted love lives alongside the mundane, and that poetry must eventually give way to the humble work of building something real.

A sumptuous, unapologetically romantic poem that commits fully to its golden conceit and is richer for it. The blazon tradition—cataloguing the beloved’s beauties—is handled with fresh energy, and the medieval knight imagery adds dimension beyond simple adoration. The physicality of “my armor clinks, my heartbeat stammers” gives weight to what could otherwise feel overwrought. The central question—”are you a myth?”—introduces genuine tension, acknowledging the danger of idealizing the beloved. But it’s the closing pivot that transforms this from a very good love poem into an excellent one: “Tomorrow, the inspiration will be—laying a brick.” After all that gold, this prosaic image grounds the poem in reality, suggesting that true devotion expresses itself not just in gilded verse but in the daily labor of building a life together. A lovely balance of the exalted and the earthy.