Alas, my love, if I make you live And from the page forth and sit beside me Or still, bestride the steed I gave you Wrapped within the cloak I lent to hide thee Perhaps I'd forth to ask thy name Since while thou liest my pen That honour which the poorest claim was withheld. But if again I held thee as I did ere now Stalling to pass my fingers the last Of midnight tendrils, or peruse thy In fear of sending off what heaven Too early for my mind To grasp the fullest and retain The presence that image left behind That in all thy glory should remain I my oversight I would not mend For now reflection I confess That secretly I never did With title or surname rich to bless But let in my imagination Run the thoughts of who perhaps you were Before your soul your creation And deigned my mind and heart to stir For a noble and impassioned face Could well be but unto this sphere But sure among a beauteous race Thou hast known than all who dwelleth here And could tell much of places hast seen And battles fought for honours won and And how each service a faerie Queen Becomes a brighter 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 feline they wear about them And while a of innocence they hold In forests dark you to be without them For knights of maler are ne'er so bold Yes, in thy orb a maid may be a (Thou knew'st a friend would make upon news) Without a loud or censure slight For lords are not afeared their stock to Where no stock may be taken or be No be granted, nor no bride No maiden may be stolen she slept Nor robbed of her freedom to suits her best. No county's law is needed To cut the weed of from the stem No for the law to go unheeded For acts as these do not occur to The gentlemen you raise are rarer For in eyes, as in the depths of thine Such soft and thrilling mysteries The darkest corners of their design Their arrows, like those I gave to thee Could not but graze the of yonder cow Without making him laugh. much to see Them tickling their prey. I not how They ever do what they eat Save that their bright unfettered brains learned that what grows underneath their feet And in the above better sustains A intent on living well tomorrow But how, I ask thee, most fiend Do lords and ladies where is no sorrow No strife to overcome, no soul Of crushing long worn 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 heart is young No ill suitors to evade? "Still madam! Would'st thou hold thy tongue!" Thou sayest. "Your has rash been made In living long in combat with your Thou see'st no other but these Thy hands are careworn that have yet to The hands that should hold them. Yet to please The hierarchy which you serve Thou believe that love in fighting grows That happiness in love is not But in thy sadness mak'st light of woes For even there ne'er a cloudy day No tempest to divide what love had The galley the moon holds in her sway Could not but stir the it finally found The wound is deeper the sea about thee The stars upon my doublet you drawn May light my homeward path, but how, me Wilt thou the fate thou tremblest on?" And in this way and more my paper O, fierce, savage, gentle beauty Thou who I've given breath my soul has You had but not the right I but see the lips that dare not breathe They are so and pressing sweet Could I but touch the wings underneath Are made so soft thy heart to beat Perhaps I should have more for to strive You came to my domain and brought For though I be the chastest alive The you speak of will not take me there Have you no Can'st thou not perceive That I, a blinded beast, had but the To see where I would Dost thou believe That ere you came I was but vain I know the murmur of reveals The things no heart could comprehend I render'st for all that torment feels And longed to be thy lordship's faithful Yea, quiet as a mushroom did I I willed to thee my to overtake I shivered at each passing horse's And so I to suddenly awake Alas, my love, wilt thou kiss me The lingering night aid thee on thy travels I'll craft but one more, a crow to fly Before to tell me how thy tale I say, thou art and free to go What holds here save one who lives no longer? For I given thee the life you know The weaker I become, thou art the And in your antique words your clear Was that once thou art gone I should Quothe thee, "Your thought me, for I meant To leave thee not but to stay. For true, I did in my own realm Partake of that pure love of I told thee But be my guide and with me at the And I shall, in the cloak you wrought, enfold And journey to the of all the earth For thou hast proved more generous and Than all we faeries, moons and stars are For live we not but living in eyes." Dear nameless knight, if thou be mine own And leave thy for a while thou may'st Find in these arms within which hast grown A better than the which thou say'st But with your you pointeth; swear I so And 'tis not plain to me, though I did it way thou dost intend for us to go Sure in the it is of she who saw it Yet still perhaps I thee to discover What one would do if one were asked to 'Tween back and forwards. Be friend or lover Perhaps you were to be my favorite Thou feel'st thy fight but when you must Thou see'st the blade of truth thy knee Use against all whom you mistrust But thou ride'st my way, aim one at me Your world is as ere it was before Your time beneath my hand well spent made a thing I love; I ask no more And shall redeem the heart I lent Me in my world and thyself in Two petals on the and silent flower And evermore I'll welcome in mine Your dear creation was my finest