Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/120

Fearing the night will never die,
Nor dawn relieve my misery.
Longing for light my spirit cries:
O sun, for God’s sake, haste to rise2600
Above the hills, delay thou not,
But cast thy beams on this drear spot,
And chase, by thy resistless power,
Night, and the clouds that round me lower.’

A lover’s restlessness Thus shalt thou wear the night away
Reft of repose, for well the play
Of lovers’ thoughts to me is known.
And then at last, impatient grown
Of vainly courting scornful sleep,
From off thy restless couch thou’lt leap,2610
And set thyself in haste to don
Thy raiment, and thy shoes put on,
Although the dawning still delays
Its coming, and by secret ways
Wilt haste through storm of rain, or sleet,
To seek the house where dwells thy sweet,
Who, whilst thou wakest, in profound
And blissful dreams perchance is drowned,
Of thee unmindful: then shalt thou
Seek if the postern door allow2620
Some entry, but an hour or more
Must bide, content, on stony floor,
Beaten by wind and rain, to sit:
Then to the portal shalt thou flit,
And seek with diligent eye some place
Unbolted, or some window space
Left open, so that thou mayst find,
With anxious ear, if slumber bind