Page:Early poems of William Morris.djvu/117

 Have used them daily, but to-day I wish

To pray another way; come face to face,

Christ, that I may clasp your knees and pray,

I know not what; at any rate come now

From one of many places where you are,

Either in Heaven amid thick angel wings,

Or sitting on the altar strange with gems,

Or high up in the dustiness of the apse;

Let us go, You and I, a long way off,

To the little damp, dark, Poitevin church;

While you sit on the coffin in the dark,

Will I lie down, my face on the bare stone

Between your feet, and chatter anything

I have heard long ago, what matters it

So I may keep you there, your solemn face

And long hair even-flowing on each side,

Until you love me well enough to speak,

And give me comfort; yea, till o'er your chin,

And cloven red beard the great tears roll down

In pity for my misery, and I die,

Kissed over by you.

Like Countess Mountfort now, that kiss'd the knight,

Across the salt sea come to fight for her;

Ah! just to go about with many knights,

Wherever you went, and somehow on one day,

In a thick wood to catch you off your guard,

Let you find, you and your some fifty friends,

Nothing but arrows wheresoe'er you turn'd,

Yea, and red crosses, great spears over them;

And so, between a lane of my true men,

To walk up pale and stern and tall, and with

My arms on my surcoat, and his therewith,