Page:Early poems of William Morris.djvu/146

 And ever the chevron overhead

Flapped on the banner of the dead;

(Was he asleep, or was he dead?)

Alice the Queen, and Louise the Queen,

Two damozels wearing purple and green,

Four lone ladies dwelling here

From day to day and year to year;

And there is none to let us go;

To break the locks of the doors below,

Or shovel away the heaped-up snow;

And when we die no man will know

That we are dead; but they give us leave,

Once every year on Christmas-eve,

To sing in the Closet Blue one song;

And we should be so long, so long,

If we dared, in singing; for dream on dream,

They float on in a happy stream;

Float from the gold strings, float from the keys,

Float from the open'd lips of Louise;

But, alas! the sea-salt oozes through

The chinks of the tiles of the Closet Blue;

And ever the great bell overhead

Booms in the wind a knell for the dead,

The wind plays on it a knell for the dead.

[They sing all together]

How long ago was it, how long ago.

He came to this tower with hands full of snow?

"Kneel down, O love Louise, kneel down," he said,

And sprinkled the dusty snow over my head.