s spirit flutters like a lark, II He stoops-to kiss her on his The hedge broke in, the banner blew, The butler drank, the steward scrawl'd, The fire shot up, the martin flew, The parrot scream'd, the peacock squall'd, The maid and page renew'd their strife, The palace bang'd and buzz'd and clackt, And all the long-pent stream of life And last with these the king awoke, And in his chair himself uprear'd, 15 And yawn'd, and rubb'd his face, and spoke, 'By holy rood, a royal beard! How say you? we have slept, my lords. My beard has grown into my lap.' Or old-world trains, upheld at court By Cupid-boys of blooming hue The flower and quintessence of But take it - -earnest wed with sport, For since the time when Adam first What lips, like thine, so sweetly join'd? Where on the double rosebud droops That lets thee neither hear nor see: But break it. In the name of wife, And in the rights that name may give, Are clasp'd the moral of thy life, EPILOGUE So, Lady Flora, take my lay, And if you find a meaning there, 270 0, whisper to your glass, and say, 'What wonder if he thinks me fair?' What wonder I was all unwise, To shape the song for your delight And either sacred unto you. AMPHION 280 Came wet-shod alder from the wave, Came yews, a dismal coterie; They read in arbors clipt and cut, And alleys, faded places, Each pluck'd his one foot from the By squares of tropic summer shut And warm'd in crystal cases. grave, Poussetting with a sloe-tree; Old elms came breaking from the But these, tho' fed with careful dirt, Are neither green nor sappy: Half-conscious of the garden-squirt, The spindlings look unhappy. Better to me the meanest weed That blows upon its mountain, The vilest herb that runs to seed Beside its native fountain. |