Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/246

For he by power of will alone
May scorn her strokes if adverse grown.
Fortune endureth not Give ear: A folly most extreme
It is that men should Fortune deem
A Goddess, up to highest heaven
Exalting her, for ne’er was given6250
To her by reason nor by right
In paradise a mansion bright;
No house enduring hath she got,
But one right perilous, God wot.

Amid a sea, of depth profound,
Rises a mighty rock, around
Whose bases in tumultuous roar
The rude waves beat for evermore.
The billows never shepherded,
Dash ’gainst its sides, and o’er its head,6260
And ever and again nigh drown
With thundering burst its high-built crown.
Sometimes the giant’s strength awakes,
And so the assaulting deluge shakes,
That ’tis half vanquished and falls back
While draws he breath ’gainst fresh attack.
But ever, Proteus-like, his shape
Doth change, as one who would escape
Cognition of his boisterous foes,
And when he lifts his head, he shows6270
A thousand flowerets (like to stars
That brighten heaven around the cars
Of deities) amidst the tides,
When Zephyrus in triumph rides,
But when the north wind blows, he reaps
With freezing sword the flowers in heaps.