Page:Poems Acton.djvu/108

All, all hath changed around thee,
 But thou'rt unaltered yet;
And long must time pass o'er thee
 Ere thy beauty we forget.

Hast thou no gentle legend
 Of courtly dame and knight,
Whose joyous voices, long since hushed,
 Have filled thee with delight?

Thou bearest on thy portal
 The symbol of a name,
Whispered with strange misgiving;
 Deathless in crime-wrought fame.

Say, hath no gentle being
 Passed o'er thy polished floor,
With sigh of bitter meaning,
 Lip that would smile no more?

Say, hath no weary watcher
 Rested thy casement near;
Marking the Leicester's absence,
 By many a blighting tear?

Surely thou canst not tell us,
 Thou hast looked down at last,
On scenes as dark as story
 Hath brought us from the past!