Alas, my love, if I make you live And from the page step and sit beside me Or still, bestride the steed I gave you Wrapped close within the cloak I to hide thee Perhaps I'd venture to ask thy name while thou liest underneath my pen That honour given which the poorest Unjustly was withheld. But if I held captive as I did ere now Stalling to pass my fingers through the Of tendrils, or peruse thy brow In fear of sending off what cast Too early for my mind To grasp the detail and retain The presence that your left behind thou in all thy glory should remain I fear my oversight I would not For now upon I confess secretly I never did intend With title long or rich to bless But rather let in my Run wild the thoughts of who perhaps you Before soul demanded your creation And my mind and willing heart to stir For such a noble and impassioned Could well be but newborn unto sphere But sure among a distant race Thou hast more than all who dwelleth here And could tell much of places thou seen And battles fought for won and lost And how each service done a Queen a brighter jewel than it cost The ladies of world, you may impart Desire to be neither Nor in the art Of living, where their lips were meant to A sort of stealth they wear about them And while a flame of they hold In forests dark you fear to be them For of maler kinds are ne'er so bold Yes, in thy orb a may be a knight (Thou knew'st a friend would upon this news) Without a loud or censure slight For lords are not afeared their to lose no stock may be taken or be kept No be granted, nor no bride No maiden may be while she slept Nor robbed of her to decide suits her best. No county's law is needed To cut the weed of violence the stem No danger for the law to go For acts as these do not occur to The gentlemen you raise are rarer For in their eyes, as in the depths of Such soft and thrilling mysteries The corners of their heart's design Their arrows, much like those I gave to Could not but the flank of yonder cow Without him laugh. 'Tis much to see Them tickling prey. I know not how They ever do encapture they eat Save that perhaps bright unfettered brains Have learned that what grows their feet And in the trees above better A life on living well tomorrow But how, I ask thee, most fiend Do lords and ladies love where is no No strife to overcome, no soul Of crushing ardor long out its stay, to a mortal less divine Than that who stole thy breath away No hot forbidden for to pine No affixed to age where heart is young No ill intentioned to evade? "Still madam! Would'st thou hold thy tongue!" Thou sayest. "Your mistake has been made In living long in combat your kind see'st no other obstacle but these Thy hands are careworn that have yet to The hands that should hold them. Yet to please The hierarchy you serve unwitting dost believe that love in fighting grows That happiness in is not befitting But in thy sadness thou mak'st light of For were there ne'er a cloudy day No tempest to what love had bound The galley which the holds in her sway Could not but the peace it finally found The wound is deeper than the sea about The stars upon my doublet you drawn May light my homeward path, but how, me Wilt thou escape the thou tremblest on?" And in this way and more my spoke O, fierce, savage, gentle bright who I've given breath my soul has broke You had authority but not the I but see the lips that dare not breathe They are so beautiful and pressing I but touch the wings that underneath Are made so soft thy heart to beat Perhaps I should more for which to strive You came to my and brought despair For though I be the heart alive The you speak of will not take me there you no pity? Can'st thou not perceive That I, a blinded beast, had but the To see where I would love? thou believe ere you came I was but vain disguise? I the murmur of music reveals The things no heart could comprehend I render'st thou for all that torment And longed to be thy lordship's friend Yea, quiet as a mushroom did I I willed to thee my form to I shivered at each passing gait And so I to suddenly awake Alas, my love, wilt kiss me goodbye? The night will aid thee on thy travels I'll craft but one thing more, a to fly Before to me how thy tale unravels I say, art complete and free to go What holds thee here save one who no longer? For I have given thee the you know The weaker I become, art the stronger And in your antique your clear intent Was that once thou art gone I dismay Quothe thee, "Your mistook me, for I meant To thee not but offerest to stay. For true, I did in my own realm Partake of that pure love of which I thee But be my and with me at the helm And I shall, in the cloak you wrought, thee And journey to the ends of all the For thou proved more generous and wise Than all we faeries, and stars are worth For we not but living in your eyes." nameless knight, if thou would'st be mine own And leave thy dragons for a thou may'st in these arms within which thou hast grown A better reason than the thou say'st But your hand you pointeth; swear I so And not plain to me, though I did draw it Which way thou dost for us to go in the mind it is of she who saw it Yet still perhaps I made thee to What one would do if one were to choose 'Tween and forwards. Be thee friend or lover Perhaps you were to be my muse feel'st thy armor; fight but when you must Thou see'st the of truth below thy knee Use arrows all whom you mistrust But thou ride'st my way, aim one at me world is yours as ere it was before Your time beneath my hand well spent I've a thing I love; I ask no more And never redeem the heart I lent Me in my world and in thine Two on the same and silent flower And I'll welcome thee in mine dear creation was my finest hour