She, mouldering with the dull earth's mouldering sod, Inwrapt tenfold in slothful shame, And death and life she hated equally, Remaining utterly confused with fears, Shut up as in a crumbling tomb, girt round Far off she seemed to hear the dully sound As in strange lands a traveller walking slow, A little before moon-rise hears the low And knows not if it be thunder or a sound A new land, but I die.” 66 She howled aloud, "I am on fire within. have found So when four years were wholly finished, Yet pull not down my palace towers, that are So lightly, beautifully built: Perchance I may return with others there When I have purged my guilt." LADY CLARA VERE DE VERE. LADY Clara Vere de Vere, Of me you shall not win renown; Lady Clara Vere de Vere, I know you proud to bear your name; Too proud to care from whence I came. A heart that dotes on truer charms. A simple maiden in her flower Is worth a hundred coats-of-arms. Lady Clara Vere de Vere, Some meeker pupil you must find, And my The lion on your old stone gates Is not more cold to you than I. Lady Clara Vere de Vere, You put strange memories in my head Not thrice your branching limes have blown Lady Clara Vere de Vere, When thus he met his mother's view, She had the passions of her kind, She spake some certain truths of you. Indeed, I heard one bitter word That scarce is fit for you to hear; Her manners had not that repose Which stamps the caste of Vere de Vere. your hall: Lady Clara Vere de Vere, Trust me, Clara Vere de Vere, From yon blue heavens above us bent Kind hearts are more than coronets, I know you, Clara Vere de Vere: In glowing health, with boundless wealth, But sickening of a vague disease, You needs must play such pranks as these. Clara, Clara Vere de Vere, If Time be heavy on your hands, THE MAY QUEEN. I. You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear; To-morrow 'ill be the happiest time of all the glad New-year; Of all the glad New-year, mother, the maddest, merriest day; For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May. II. There's many a black, black eye, they say, so bright as mine; but none There's Margaret and Mary, there's Kate and Caro line: But none so fair as little Alice in all the land, they say: So I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May. III. I sleep so sound all night, mother, that I shall never wake, If you do not call me loud when the day begins to break: But I must gather knots of flowers, and buds and garlands gay, For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May. IV. As I came up the valley, whom think ye should I see, But Robin leaning on the bridge beneath the hazeltree? He thought of that sharp look, mother, I gave him yesterday, But I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May. V. He thought I was a ghost, mother, for I was all in white, And I ran by him without speaking, like a flash of light. They call me cruel-hearted, but I care not what they say, For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May. VI. They say he's dying all for love, but that can never be: They say his heart is breaking, mother-what is that to me? There's many a bolder lad 'ill woo me any summer day, And I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May. 6 VOL. I. |