The Golden Target (or shield) is an allegory of the Chaucer-type, but in a nine- lined stanza having two rhymes. Thus he discards the traditional meter and breaks new ground. There is a freedom of movement which saves the allegory form the usual tedium, and the dazzling decoration pleases the eye. It is rainbow- hued country to which we are transported: “The Oriental imagination of this Northerner is astonishing.”