Alas, my love, if I could you live And from the page step forth and sit me Or better still, the steed I gave you close within the cloak I lent to hide thee Perhaps I'd forth to ask thy name Since while thou underneath my pen That honour given the poorest claim 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 sending off what cast Too for my insufficient mind To grasp the detail and retain The that your image left behind thou in all thy glory should remain I fear my oversight I not mend For now upon reflection I That I never did intend With title or surname rich to bless But let in my imagination Run wild the thoughts of who you were Before soul demanded your creation And deigned my and willing heart to stir For a noble and impassioned face Could well be but unto this sphere But sure among a distant beauteous hast known more than all who dwelleth here And could tell of places thou hast seen And battles for honours won and lost And how service done a faerie Queen Becomes a brighter than it cost The ladies of your world, you may to be neither over-graced Nor in the art Of living, where their lips were to taste A of feline stealth they wear about them And a flame 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 this news) Without a whisper loud or censure For lords are not their stock to lose Where no may be taken or be kept No property be granted, nor no No maiden may be stolen she slept Nor of her freedom 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 you raise are rarer still For in eyes, as in the depths of thine soft and thrilling mysteries fulfill The corners of their heart's design Their arrows, much like those I gave to Could not but graze the of yonder cow Without him laugh. 'Tis much to see tickling their prey. I know not how They ever do encapture what eat Save that perhaps 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 and ladies love where is no sorrow No strife to overcome, no uncleaned Of crushing ardor worn out its stay, Betrothal to a less divine Than that who stole thy breath away No hot kisses for to pine No heart affixed to age where is young No ill intentioned to evade? "Still madam! Would'st thou kindly thy tongue!" Thou sayest. "Your has rash been made In living long in with your kind Thou see'st no obstacle but these Thy hands are that have yet to find The hands first should hold them. Yet to please The hierarchy which you unwitting Thou dost believe that in fighting grows happiness in love 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 which the moon holds in her sway Could not but stir the peace it finally The is deeper than the sea about thee The stars upon my doublet you have May my homeward path, but how, without me Wilt escape the fate thou tremblest on?" And in this way and more my paper O, fierce, savage, gentle bright Thou who I've given breath my has broke You had but not the right Could I but see the lips that dare not They are so beautiful and pressing Could I but touch the wings that Are made so thy heart forgets to beat Perhaps I should more for which to strive You came to my domain and despair For though I be the chastest alive The realm you speak of not take me there Have you no Can'st thou not perceive That I, a beast, had but the eyes To see where I would love? Dost thou That ere you came I was but vain I know the murmur of reveals The things no human heart could I render'st thou for all that feels And longed to be thy faithful friend Yea, quiet as a mushroom did I I willed to thee my to overtake I at each passing horse's gait And so I to suddenly awake Alas, my love, wilt thou kiss me The lingering will aid thee on thy travels I'll but one thing more, a crow to fly Before to tell me how thy unravels I say, art complete and free to go What holds here save one who lives no longer? For I have given the life you know The weaker I become, thou art the And in your antique words your intent Was that thou art gone I should dismay Quothe thee, "Your mistook me, for I meant To thee not but offerest to stay. For true, I never did in my own of that pure love of which I told thee But be my guide and me at the helm And I shall, in the cloak you wrought, thee And to the ends of all the earth For thou hast proved more and wise Than all we faeries, moons and are worth For live we not but living in eyes." Dear nameless knight, if thou would'st be own And leave thy dragons for a while thou Find in these within which thou hast grown A better reason than the thou say'st But with hand you pointeth; swear I so And 'tis not plain to me, though I did 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 asked to choose back and forwards. Be thee friend or lover Perhaps you to be my favorite muse Thou feel'st thy armor; 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 Your world is as ere it was before Your time beneath my busy hand spent I've made a I love; I ask no more And never shall the heart I lent Me in my and thyself in thine Two on the same and silent flower And evermore I'll welcome in mine dear creation was my finest hour