University of Virginia Library

III.LINES SENT WITH SPENCER'S “FAERY QUEEN.”

Lady loved! I bring to thee
Aladdin's cave in poesy:
I bring to thee a wilderness
Where swiftest faun-feet might confess
That they had lost the path. In sooth
It is as if we had lain down
Tired with too much happiness;
And underneath an old tree's frown,
A druid of Pendragon's youth,
Where sunshine could but dimly peer
In the leafy quarter of the year,
While heats and odours, songs and hum
Of bees, the sense had overcome,
And an enchanted sleep had borne
Us far within the gates of morn,
Where strangely-shapen mists and clouds
Array themselves in motley crowds,
And clothed in nameless glorious dies
Hurry up into the skies
So fast, so changeable, so high,
Now a bannerol'd young chivalry,
Or a dainty sheaf, so mild and meek,
Of maidens ‘girt in guiltless gowns,’
Dragons dire, decievers sleek,
Mighty walls round baseless towns,
White christian myths, and satyrs red,
Each leaping o'er the others head!
The Faery Queen! ah, well-a-day,
Fancy's self is but a fay,
And great round men with pockets stored,
Laugh at all that she can say:
But she also hath her hoard,
Wine of life, and stone of power,
Bath of beauty, deathless flower,
Cap invisible and purse
Exhaustless, salve for the ancient curse.
These are of the wonderous things
Guarded by her servant-kings,
Hived within her planet rings:
'Tis she anoints the lover's eye,
She from the fine lip makes reply,
And round even me
When I think of thee,
Lady loved, a starry woof
She throws of texture sorrow-proof.
Yet again, ah well-a-day!
Fancy's but a tricksome fay,
Her wing so swift to come, also
Is certainly as swift to go!
Nay, ah nay,
Quoth little Love, with his great blue eye
Archly smiling, surely nay!
It is not so,
For I can tie
Her right wing, she no more shall fly!
Lady-girl, Mignon, May!
Another name,—Titania,
Henceforth take, while I, thy knight,
Offer upon bended knee
This treasure-house of poesy,
In rare blackletters all bedight,
Captured on an old book-stall
Guarded by a monster small,
In a far place where you bend
Towards the well at the world's end!
A treasure-trove
Worthy better poet's love!