Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/294

THE BLAMELESS PRINCE The banks were all abloom; a pheasant whirred

Far in the bush; anon, some tuneful bird

Broke into song, or, from a covert dark,

A bounding deer its dappled haunches showed

As though it heard the stag-hound's distant bark.

The wistful Prince with loitering purpose bode,

And thought how good it were to spend one's life

Far off from men, nor jostled with their strife.

Even as he mused he saw his host ahead,

Speeding to welcome him, in lordly wont,

And all the household in a line bestead;

And lightly with that escort, at the front,

A peerless woman rode across the green;

Then the Prince thought, "It surely is the Queen,

Who comes to meet me of her loving grace!"

And his blood mounted; but he knew how fair

The royal locks, and, when she neared his place,

He saw the lady's prodigal dark hair

And wondrous loveliness were wide apart

From the sweet, tranquil picture next his heart.

And when the chamberlain, with halted suit,

Made reverence, and was answered courteous-wise,

The lady to her knightly guest's salute

Turned her face full, so that he marked her eyes,—

How dewy gray beneath each long, black lid,

And danger somewhere in their light lay hid.

There are some natures housed so chaste within

Their placid dwellings that their heads control

The tumult of their hearts; and thus they win

A quittance from this pleading of the soul

For Love, whose service does so wound and heal;

How should they crave for what they cannot feel?

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