In Other Words/Inept Quotation's Artificial Aid

Inept Quotation’s Artificial Aid

It was a friar of orders gray,
And he stoppeth one of three:
I chanced to see at break of day
That not impossible She.

“I was with Grant—” the stranger said—
By the nine gods he swore—
For here, forlorn and lost I tread
Beside a human door.

Stay, lady, stay for mercy’s sake!
How glazed each weary eye!
And could I ever keep awake
Till a’ the seas gang dry?

Love still hath something of the sea,
In the first sweet sleep of night;
Whate’er the years may bring to me,
Fond mem’ry brings the light.

I hear a voice you cannot hear,
Beside the Springs of Dove;
And she is grown so dear, so dear,
She never told her love.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
Look backward with a smile.
The apparel oft proclaims the man,
And only man is vile.

I have set my life upon a cast—
To die were far more sweet—
As through on Alpine village passed
The print of Lucy’s feet.

Drink to me only with thine eyes
To drive dull care away.
In Venice on the Bridge on Sighs,
Upon a truss of hay.

I never saw a purple cow
Or nursed a dear gazelle;
When pain and anguish wring the brow
I only feel Farewell!

She left us in the bloom of May,
When night and morning meet,
Yet some maintain that to this day
Her voice is low and sweet.

If this fair rose offend thy sight
In faëry lands forlorn,
She was a Phantom of Delight
Breast high amid the corn.

For what avail the plough or sail?
Men were deceivers ever.
Turn, gentle hermit of the dale,
And let who will be clever.

I prithee send me back my heart,
Half hidden from the eye;
’Tis of man’s life a thing apart—
Good-bye, my lover, good-bye!