The Romaunt of Margret (excerpts)

IX

“My lips do need thy breath,  
     My lips do need thy smile,  
 And my pallid eyne, that light in thine  
     Which met the stars erewhile:  
   Yet go with light and life  
     If that thou lovest one  
 In all the earth who loveth thee  
     As truly as the sun.  
                Margret, Margret.”


           XIV

“But better loveth he  
 Thy chaliced wine than thy chanted song,  
     And better both than thee,  
                  Margret, Margret.”  



           XVII

“But better loveth she  
 Thy golden comb than thy gathered flowers,  
     And better both than thee,  
              Margret, Margret.”


          XXII

“We brake no gold, a sign  
   Of stronger faith to be,  
 But I wear his last look in my soul,  
     Which said, I love but thee!”  
                   Margret, Margret.


         XXVI

A knight’s bloodhound and he  
     The funeral watch did keep;  
 With a thought o’ the chase he stroked its face  
     As it howled to see him weep.  
   A fair child kissed the dead,  
     But shrank before its cold.  
 And alone yet proudly in his hall  
     Did stand a baron of old.  
                  Margret, Margret.