Page:Tristram of Lyonesse and other poems (IA tristramoflyonesswinrich).pdf/172

 That bathed those nights with blessing, and the fire That thrilled those days as music thrills a lyre, Do now for me perchance the last good deed That ever love may crave or life may need Ere love lay life in ashes: take to thee My ship that shows aloft against the sea Carved on her stem the semblance of a swan, And ere the waves at even again wax wan Pass, if it may be, to my lady's land, And give this ring into her secret hand, And bid her think how hard on death I lie, And fain would look upon her face and die. But as a merchant's laden be the bark With royal ware for fraughtage, that King Mark May take for toll thereof some costly thing; And when this gift finds grace before the king, Choose forth a cup, and put therein my ring Where sureliest only of one it may be seen, And bid her handmaid bear it to the queen For earnest of thine homage: then shall she Fear, and take counsel privily with thee, To know what errand there is thine from me And what my need in secret of her sight. But make thee two sails, one like sea-foam white To spread for signal if thou bring her back, And if she come not see the sail be black, That I may know or ever thou take land If these my lips may die upon her hand Or hers may never more be mixed with mine.' And his heart quailed for grief in Ganhardine,