RHYME OF THE DUCHESS MAY.
213
"Wouldst thou ride among the leaves, as we used on other eves,
To hear chime a vesper-bell?"
To hear chime a vesper-bell?"
She clang closer to his knee—"Aye, beneath the cypress-tree!"—
Toll slowly!
"Mock me not; for otherwhere, than along the greenwood fair,
Have I ridden fast with thee!
Toll slowly!
"Mock me not; for otherwhere, than along the greenwood fair,
Have I ridden fast with thee!
"Fast I rode, with new-made vows, from my angry kinsman's house!"—
Toll slowly!
"What! and would you men should reck, that I dared more for love's sake,
As a bride than as a spouse?
Toll slowly!
"What! and would you men should reck, that I dared more for love's sake,
As a bride than as a spouse?
"What, and would you it should fall, as a proverb, before all,"—
Toll slowly!
"That a bride may keep your side, while through castle-gate you ride,
Yet eschew the castle-wall?"
Toll slowly!
"That a bride may keep your side, while through castle-gate you ride,
Yet eschew the castle-wall?"
Ho! the breach yawns into ruin, and roars up against her suing,—
Toll slowly!
With the inarticulate din, and the dreadful falling in—
Shrieks of doing and undoing!
Toll slowly!
With the inarticulate din, and the dreadful falling in—
Shrieks of doing and undoing!
Twice he wrung her hands in twain; but the small hands closed again,—
Toll slowly!
Back he reined the steed—back, back! but she trailed along his track,
With a frantic clasp and strain!
Toll slowly!
Back he reined the steed—back, back! but she trailed along his track,
With a frantic clasp and strain!
