Alas, my love, if I could you live And from the step forth and sit beside me Or better still, bestride the I gave you Wrapped close within the I lent to hide thee Perhaps I'd forth to ask thy name Since while liest underneath my pen That honour which the poorest claim was withheld. But if again I held captive as I did ere now Stalling to pass my through the last Of tendrils, or peruse thy brow In of sending off what heaven cast Too for my insufficient mind To grasp the fullest and retain The presence that your left behind That thou in all thy should remain I my oversight I would not mend For now upon reflection I secretly I never did intend With long or surname rich to bless But let in my imagination Run the thoughts of who perhaps you were Before soul demanded your creation And my mind and willing heart to stir For such a and impassioned face Could well be but newborn unto sphere But among a distant beauteous race Thou hast known more than all who dwelleth And could tell much of places thou hast And battles fought for won and lost And how each service a faerie Queen Becomes a brighter jewel than it The of your world, you may impart Desire to be neither Nor in the art Of living, where their lips were to taste A sort of feline stealth wear about them And while a of innocence they hold In forests dark you fear to be without For knights of maler kinds are so bold Yes, in thy orb a may be a knight (Thou knew'st a friend would make upon news) Without a loud or censure slight For lords are not afeared stock to lose Where no stock may be or be kept No property be granted, nor no No maiden may be stolen she slept Nor robbed of her to decide suits her best. No county's law is needed To cut the weed of violence from the No danger for the law to go For acts as these do not to them The gentlemen you raise are still For in eyes, as in the depths of thine Such soft and mysteries fulfill The darkest of their heart's design Their arrows, much like I gave to thee Could not but graze the of yonder cow Without him laugh. 'Tis much to see Them tickling prey. I know not how They ever do what they eat that perhaps their bright unfettered brains Have learned that what grows their feet And in the trees above sustains A life intent on well tomorrow But how, I ask thee, most fiend Do lords and ladies love is no sorrow No strife to overcome, no uncleaned Of crushing ardor long out its stay, to a mortal less divine Than that who stole thy blushing away No hot kisses for to pine No heart affixed to age where heart is No ill suitors to evade? "Still madam! Would'st thou hold thy tongue!" Thou sayest. "Your mistake has rash made In long in combat with your kind Thou no other obstacle but these Thy hands are that have yet to find The hands that first hold them. Yet to please The hierarchy you serve unwitting Thou believe that love in fighting grows happiness in love is not befitting But in thy thou mak'st light of woes For even there ne'er a cloudy day No tempest to divide what love had The galley which the holds in her sway Could not but stir the peace it found The is deeper than the sea about thee The stars upon my doublet you have May my homeward path, but how, without me Wilt thou escape the fate thou on?" And in this way and my paper spoke O, fierce, savage, beauty bright Thou who given breath my soul has broke You had authority but not the Could I but see the lips that not breathe They are so beautiful and pressing Could I but the wings that underneath Are made so soft thy forgets to beat Perhaps I should have more for which to You to my domain and brought despair For though I be the chastest heart The realm you speak of not take me there Have you no pity? Can'st not perceive I, a blinded beast, had but the eyes To see I would love? Dost thou believe That ere you came I was but vain I know the murmur of music The things no human heart could I render'st thou for all that torment And to be thy lordship's faithful friend Yea, quiet as a mushroom did I I willed to thee my to overtake I shivered at each passing gait And so I slept to suddenly Alas, my love, wilt thou kiss me The lingering night will aid on thy travels craft but one thing more, a crow to fly Before to tell me how thy tale I say, thou art and free to go What holds thee save one who lives no longer? For I have given the life you know The I become, thou art the stronger And in your antique words your intent Was that once thou art gone I should Quothe thee, "Your thought me, for I meant To leave not but offerest to stay. For true, I did in my own realm Partake of pure love of which I told thee But be my and with me at the helm And I shall, in the cloak you wrought, thee And journey to the of all the earth For thou proved more generous and wise Than all we faeries, moons and stars are For live we not but living in eyes." nameless knight, if thou would'st be mine own And thy dragons for a while thou may'st Find in these arms within which hast grown A better reason than the which thou But with your hand you pointeth; I so And 'tis not plain to me, I did draw it Which way thou dost for us to go Sure in the it is of she who saw it Yet perhaps I made thee to discover one would do if one were asked to choose 'Tween back and forwards. Be thee friend or you were to be my favorite muse Thou feel'st thy fight but when you must Thou see'st the blade of below thy knee Use arrows against all whom you But when thou my way, aim one at me Your world is as ere it was before Your time beneath my busy hand spent I've made a thing I love; I ask no And never redeem the heart I lent Me in my world and in thine Two petals on the same and silent And evermore I'll welcome thee in dear creation was my finest hour