Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/38

4

That, lying on my bed, I dreamed

Dull night was passed and dawning beamed,

And, leaping from the couch, my face

I washed in haste, the night to chase,

Put on my shoes, then straightway took

A silver bodkin from a book

Or bodkin-case, and with a thread

Engarnished it, then forthwith sped

From out the town, with will to hear

The woodland fowl with piping clear

Give welcome to the season new.

And as I went the cords I drew

Basting my sleeves, all joyous I

To hear the birds sing merrily

Among the spring-tide’s burgeoning trees.

Moved gently by the fragrant breeze.

So to a river came I near

Whose pleasant murmur struck mine ear,

And soothing, past all words, did seem

The rippling music of the stream.

From out a moss-grown rocky bank

In bubbling waves, that rose and sank

With changing force, the water cool

Fell clear and bright, until a pool

It formed, meandering o’er the plain

In volume less than rolls the Seine,

But broader spreading as I ween.

Never the eye of man hath seen

A fairer sight than that which I

Now gazed upon so rapturously.

Awhile I stood, then in the wave,

Glistening and fresh, I stooped to lave