Page:Early poems of William Morris.djvu/127

 But who went backward when they saw the gate

Of diamond, nor dared to enter in;

And their life long they were content to wait,

Purging them patiently of every sin.

I must have had a dream of some such thing.

And now am just awaking from that dream;

For even in grey dawn those strange words ring

Through heart and brain, and still I see that gleam.

For in my dream at sunset-time I lay

Beneath these beeches, mail and helmet off,

Right full of joy that I had come away

From court; for I was patient of the scoff

That met me always there from day to day,

From any knave or coward of them all:

I was content to live that wretched way;

For truly till I left the council-hall.

And rode forth arm'd beneath the burning sun,

My gleams of happiness were faint and few,

But then I saw my real life had begun,

And that I should be strong quite well I knew.

For I was riding out to look for love.

Therefore the birds within the thickets sung,

Even in hot noontide, as I pass'd, above

The elms o'ersway'd with longing towards me hung.

Now some few fathoms from the place where I

Lay in the beech-wood, was a tower fair,

The marble corners faint against the sky;

And dreamily I wonder'd what lived there: