And sweet no more to me !' I need Him We run more counter to the soul thereof Than had we never sworn. I swear no now. more. I swore to the great King, and am for sworn. For once-ev'n to the height-I honor'd him. 'Man, is he man at all?' methought, when first I rode from our rough Lyonesse, and beheld That victor of the Pagan throned in hall His hair, a sun that ray'd from off a brow Like hillsnow high in heaven, the steelblue eyes, The golden beard that clothed his lips with light Moreover, that weird legend of his birth, With Merlin's mystic babble about his end, Amazed me; then, his foot was on a stool Shaped as a dragon; he seem'd to me They fail'd to trace him thro' the flesh and blood Of our old Kings: whence then? a doubtful lord violate : To bind them by inviolable vows, Which flesh and blood perforce would [within For feel this arm of mine-the tide Red with free chase and heatherscented air, [pure Pulsing full man; can Arthur make me As any maiden child? lock up my tongue From uttering freely what I freely hear? Bind me to one? The great world laughs at it. And worldling of the world am I, and know The ptarmigan that whitens ere his hour She rose, and set before him all he will'd; And after these had comforted the blood With meats and wines, and satiated their hearts Wooes his own end; we are not angels Now talking of their woodland para here Nor shall be: vows-I am woodman of This knightliest of all knights, and cast thee back dise, The deer, the dews, the fern, the founts, the lawns; Now mocking at the much ungainli ness, And craven shifts, and long crane legs of Mark Then Tristram laughing caught the harp, and sang: "Ay, ay, O ay-the winds that bend the brier! A star in heaven, a star within the mere ! Ay, ay, O ay-a star was my desire, And one was far apart, and one was near: Ay, ay, O ay-the winds that bow the grass! And one was water and one star was fire, And one will ever shine and one will pass. Thine own small saw, 'We love but Ay, ay, O ay-the winds that move the while we may,' Well then, what answer? ?" mere.' "The collar of some order, which our King Hath newly founded, all for thee, my soul, For thee, to yield thee grace beyond thy peers." "Not so, my Queen," he said, "but the red fruit Grown on a magic oak-tree in midheaven, And won by Tristram as a tourneyprize, And hither brought by Tristram for his last Love-offering and peace-offering unto thee." He rose, he turn'd, and flinging round her neck, Claspt it but while ne bow'd himself to lay Warm kisses in the hollow of her throat, A WELCOME TO THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF EDINBURGH. The golden news along the steppes is blown, And at thy name the Tartar tents are stirred: Elburz and all the Caucasus have heard; Yet Harold's England fell to Norman swords: Yet thine own land has bow'd to Tartar hordes Since English Harold gave its throne a wife, For Alexandrovna ! thrones and peoples are as waifs that swing, And float or fall, in endless ebb and flow; But who love best have best the grace to know That Love by right divine is deathless king, Marie-Alexandrovna ! IV. And Love has led thee to the stranger land, Where men are bold and strongly say their say; See, empire upon empire smiles today, As thou with thy young lover hand in hand, Alexandrovna! And all the sultry palms of India So now thy fuller life is in the West, known, Alexandrovna. The voices of our universal sea, On capes of Afric as on cliffs of Kent, The Maoris and that Isle of Continent, And loyal pines of Canada murmur thee, Marie-Alexandrovna ! III. Fair empires branching, both, in lusty life! Whose hand at home was gracious to thy poor: Thy name was blest within the narrow door; Here also, Marie, shall thy name be blest, Marie-Alexandrovna! V. Shall fears and jealous hatreds flame again? Or at thy coming, Princess, everywhere, |