Phantasmagoria and Other Poems/Stanzas for Music

by Lewis Carroll

STANZAS FOR MUSIC.

 

The morn was bright, the steeds were light,
The wedding guests were gay;
Young Ellen stood within the wood
And watched them pass away.
She scarcely saw the gallant train,
The tear-drop dimmed her ee;
Unheard the maiden did complain
Beneath the Willow tree.

"O Robin, thou didst love me well,
Till on a bitter day
She came, the Lady Isabel,
And stole my Love away.
My tears are vain, I live again
In days that used to be,
When I could meet thy welcome feet
Beneath the Willow tree.

"O Willow gray, I may not stay
Till Spring renew thy leaf,
But I will hide myself away,
And nurse a hopeless grief.
It shall not dim life's joy for him,
My tears he shall not see;
While he is by, I'll come not nigh
My weeping Willow tree.

"But when I die, O let me lie
Beneath thy loving shade,
That he may loiter careless by
Where I am lowly laid.
And let the white white marble tell,
If he should stoop to see,
'Here lies a maid that loved thee well,
Beneath the Willow tree.'"