Page:Poems and ballads (IA poemsballads00swinrich).pdf/305

 Beating for chill, their bodies swathed full thin: Alas, what hire shall any have herein To give his life and get such bitterness? Also the soul going forth bodiless Is hurt with naked cold, and no man saith If there be house or covering for death To hide the soul that is discomforted. Then she beholding him a little said: Alas, fair lord, ye have no wit of this; For on one side death is full poor of bliss And as ye say full sharp of bone and lean: But on the other side is good and green And hath soft flower of tender-coloured hair Grown on his head, and a red mouth as fair As may be kissed with lips; thereto his face Is as God's face, and in a perfect place Full of all sun and colour of straight boughs And waterheads about a painted house That hath a mile of flowers either way Outward from it, and blossom-grass of May Thickening on many a side for length of heat, Hath God set death upon a noble seat Covered with green and flowered in the fold, In likeness of a great king grown full old And gentle with new temperance of blood; And on his brows a purfled purple hood, They may not carry any golden thing; And plays some tune with subtle fingering