 | Wild honey from various thyme |  |
130
IV
LISTENING
She counted the crown sapphires as she stood
Dreaming and flushing at King David's knee;
Princes passed through the room, clad sumptuously;
One filled her with dark sunbeams as a flood—
Chiefest he seemed, most noble. Hot of blood,
Hoar-snooded Bathsheba came suddenly
Before the king—“Hast thou no care of me?
Lo, Adonijah reigneth; is it good?”
He said: “There is no king but Solomon,”
And, being left alone again, he sighed:
Abishag crouched at the throne's foot, so that
Her hair was curtain to her, as she spat
“Would God that I had died for thee, my son,
O Absalom, my son, would I had died!”
| Wild honey from various thyme | |