 | The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere |  |
QUEEN BERTHA AT HER VESPERS.
1
Half kneeling yet, and half reclining,She held her harp against her knees:
Aloft the ruddy roofs were shining,
And sunset touched the trees.
From the gold border gleamed like snow
Her foot: a crown enriched her brow:
Dark gems confined that crimson vest,
Close-moulded on her neck and breast.
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2
In silence lay the cloistral court,And shadows of the convent towers:
Well ordered now in stately sort
Those royal halls and bowers.
The coral chaunt had just swept by—
Bright arms lay quivering yet on high:
Thereon the warriors gazed, and then
Glanced lightly at the Queen again.
3
While from her lip the wild hymn floated,Such grace in those uplifted eyes,
And sweet, half absent looks, they noted
That, surely, through the skies
They deemed a Spirit floated ever
Upon that song's perpetual river,
And, smiling from its joyous track,
Upon her heavenly face looked back.
| The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere | |