Birds, Bees and Blossoms :: :: University of Virginia Library

I am the Lady of the Lake;
On a green couch my rest I take;
The ripples rock me to and fro:
While wild swans arch their necks of snow,
Forget-me-nots around me blow.

Often on my leafy brink
The little birds will stand to drink,

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Then sing to me all the long day:
The dragon-flies around me play,
Bulrushes nod their heads alway.

I need not turn my head to see,
For all is mirrored before me;
The swallow with its skimming wing,
The butterflies that sit and swing
Upon me, and then upward spring.

At myself I look all day,
Can see the fishes under me play:
No queen has such a glass as I,
That throws deep down the trees and sky,
And all the birds that o'er it fly.

I sit upon a silver ground,
With silver I am hemmed all round,
Save where laburnum flowers unfold,
And o'er me swing their chains of gold,
Which in my mirror I behold.

The water hen shows me her brood,
When paddling round in search of food;
The fishes make a silvery light,
Flashing their scaly armour bright,
Then starting at my shadow white.

At night my coronet I close;
Beneath the water I repose;
Nor from my crystal couch arise,
Until I see the eastern skies
Dappled with gold and silver dyes.

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The ripples murmur me to sleep,
The stars a watch around me keep;
I see them in my chamber lie,
Bright as if burning in the sky,
And Lady of the Lake am I.