Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/58

24

Supreme; my best and truest friend

I’ll count her till my life-days end.

Now will I set myself to tell

The further tale of what befell

In that fair spot.

What things Mirth did,

And who the friends were that he bid

To keep him company will I

Declare all faithfully, and try

To show and picture forth to you,

What happed to me, in order due.

Set out the whole in little space

Could no man, but if kindly grace

You grant me, then shall be unrolled

The tale complete, till all be told.

Within this garden, past compare.

The birds sweet voicing filled the air

With honeyed songs and roundelays.

Discoursing in a thousand ways

Their tales of tender woodland love.

I listed how some sang above

My head, perched high among the leaves.

And others ’mid the fragrant sheaves

Of blossom near the ground, and all,

With melody most musical.

Rejoiced my heart exceedingly:

Then woke a new desire in me

To look on Mirth’s fair countenance

And grasp his hand; the radiance

That flooded all my soul, I felt

Would be redoubled if he dealt

Me welcoming. I now forsook

The open grassy space, and took