 | Fifty lyrical ballads |  |
49
BENEDICITE DAUGHTER.
The Lady Abbess was gone to her rest,
And the Nuns in their cells were sleeping,
Save one who sick of so dull a nest,
Was over the battlement peeping;
And under the convent wall she spied,
A boat on the dimpling water,
And in it a youth who fondly cried—
“Come down—Benedicite Daughter!”
And the Nuns in their cells were sleeping,
Save one who sick of so dull a nest,
Was over the battlement peeping;
And under the convent wall she spied,
A boat on the dimpling water,
And in it a youth who fondly cried—
“Come down—Benedicite Daughter!”
56
She threw him one end of a silken thread,
And she kept fast hold of the other,
“Be silent—be silent”—she trembling said,
“Or you'll wake our Lady Mother!”
She drew up a ladder of ropes, and soon
The youth in his stout arms caught her;
“Away!” he cried, “by the light of the moon,
“Away! Benedicite Daughter!”
And she kept fast hold of the other,
“Be silent—be silent”—she trembling said,
“Or you'll wake our Lady Mother!”
She drew up a ladder of ropes, and soon
The youth in his stout arms caught her;
“Away!” he cried, “by the light of the moon,
“Away! Benedicite Daughter!”
The Lady Abbess awoke—and she heard
A noise at the midnight hour;
She counted her brood, and missing a Bird,
She sought it in hall and tower:
The ladder she spied—and down it she hied—
—But she tumbled into the water!
The boat sail'd off, and the Lovers cried
“Farewell! Benedicite Daughter!”
A noise at the midnight hour;
She counted her brood, and missing a Bird,
She sought it in hall and tower:
The ladder she spied—and down it she hied—
—But she tumbled into the water!
The boat sail'd off, and the Lovers cried
“Farewell! Benedicite Daughter!”
| Fifty lyrical ballads | |