Alas, my love, if I could 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 lent to hide Perhaps I'd venture to ask thy name Since while thou liest my pen That honour given which the poorest Unjustly was withheld. But if I held captive as I did ere now to pass my fingers through the last Of midnight tendrils, or peruse thy In fear of off what heaven cast Too for my insufficient mind To grasp the fullest detail and The presence your image left behind That thou in all thy glory should I fear my oversight I not mend For now upon reflection I secretly I never did intend With title long or surname rich to But let in my imagination Run the thoughts of who perhaps you were Before your soul your creation And deigned my mind and willing to stir For such a and impassioned face Could well be but unto this sphere But sure among a distant race Thou hast known more than all who dwelleth And could tell much of places thou seen And battles fought for honours won and And how each service done a Queen Becomes a brighter jewel it cost The ladies of your world, you may to be neither over-graced Nor in the art Of living, where their were meant to taste A sort of feline stealth they about them And a flame of innocence they hold In forests dark you fear to be without For of maler kinds are ne'er so bold Yes, in thy orb a maid may be a (Thou knew'st a friend would upon this news) a whisper loud or censure slight For lords are not afeared their to lose Where no stock may be taken or be No be granted, nor no bride No may be stolen while she slept Nor robbed of her freedom to What her best. No county's law is needed To cut the weed of violence the stem No for the law to go unheeded For acts as do not occur to them The gentlemen you raise are rarer For in their eyes, as in the depths of Such and thrilling mysteries fulfill The corners of their heart's design Their arrows, much like those I to thee Could not but graze the flank of cow making him laugh. 'Tis much to see Them tickling prey. I know not how They ever do what they eat Save that perhaps their bright unfettered Have learned that what underneath their feet And in the trees above better A life intent on living tomorrow But how, I ask thee, most fiend Do lords and love where is no sorrow No strife to overcome, no soul Of crushing long worn out its stay, Betrothal to a mortal divine Than that who thy blushing breath away No hot forbidden for to pine No heart affixed to age heart is young No ill suitors to evade? "Still madam! thou kindly hold thy tongue!" Thou sayest. "Your mistake has rash made In living long in combat with kind Thou see'st no obstacle 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 dost believe love in fighting grows happiness in love is not befitting But in thy sadness thou mak'st light of For even were ne'er a cloudy day No tempest to divide what love had The galley which the moon holds in her Could not but stir the peace it finally The wound is than the sea about thee The stars upon my doublet you have May light my path, but how, without me Wilt escape the fate thou tremblest on?" And in this way and my paper spoke O, fierce, savage, gentle bright Thou who I've breath my soul has broke You had authority but not the Could I but see the lips that dare not They are so and pressing sweet Could I but touch the that underneath Are made so thy heart forgets to beat Perhaps I should have more for which to You to my domain and brought despair For I be the chastest heart alive The realm you speak of will not take me Have you no pity? Can'st thou not I, a blinded beast, had but the eyes To see where I would Dost thou believe That ere you came I was but vain I the murmur of music reveals The no human 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 passing horse's gait And so I slept to suddenly Alas, my love, wilt thou kiss me The lingering night will aid thee on thy I'll craft but one more, a crow to fly Before to tell me how thy unravels I say, thou art complete and to go What thee here save one who lives no longer? For I given thee the life you know The I become, thou art the stronger And in your antique your clear intent Was that once thou art gone I dismay 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 which I told But be my guide and with me at the 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, moons and are worth For live we not but in your eyes." Dear nameless knight, if thou would'st be own And leave thy dragons for a while may'st Find in these within which thou hast grown A better reason than the which say'st But with your hand you swear I so And 'tis not plain to me, though I did it Which way thou intend for us to go Sure in the it is of she who saw it Yet still I made thee to discover What one would do if one were asked to back and forwards. Be thee friend or lover Perhaps you were to be my muse Thou thy armor; fight but when you must Thou see'st the blade of truth below thy Use arrows against all whom you But thou ride'st my way, aim one at me world is yours as ere it was before Your time beneath my busy hand 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 on the same and silent flower And evermore I'll thee in mine Your dear creation was my finest