Who wrote the poem with versus in days of old when knights were bold and ladies passing fair strange tales told secret gold deeds do dare?

The poem you are quoting is "Sir Patrick Spens", a traditional Scottish ballad.

It's important to note that the full first verse of the poem is:

"The king sits in Dunfermline town,

Drinking the blude-red wine:

'O whare will I get a skeely skipper,

To sail this ship of mine?'"

The lines you quoted are often used as a kind of shorthand to evoke the feel of medieval ballads.

While the authorship of "Sir Patrick Spens" is unknown, it is believed to have been composed sometime between the 14th and 16th centuries.