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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Earthly Paradise: The Lady of the Land</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The ArgumentA certain man having landed on an island in the Greek sea, found there a beautifuldamsel, whom he would fain have delivered from a strange & dreadful doom, butfailing herein, he died soon afterwards.<br> It happened once, some men of Italy<br> Midst the Greek Islands went a sea-roving,<br> And much good fortune had they on the sea:<br> Of many a man they had the ransoming,<br> And many a chain they gat and goodly thing;<br> And midst their voyage to an isle they came,<br> Whereof my story keepeth not the name.<br> Now though but little was there left to gain,<br> Because the richer folk had gone away,<br> Yet since by this of water they were fain<br> They came to anchor in a land-locked bay,<br> Whence in a while some went ashore to play,<br> Going but lightly armed in twos or threes,<br> For midst that folk they feared no enemies.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> And of these fellows that thus went ashore,<br> One was there who left all his friends behind;<br> Who going inland ever more and more,<br> And being left quite alone, at last did find<br> A lonely valley sheltered from the wind,<br> Wherein, amidst an ancient cypress wood,<br> A long-deserted ruined castle stood.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> The wood, once ordered in fair grove and glade,<br> With gardens overlooked by terraces,<br> And marble-pavèd pools for pleasure made,<br> Was tangled now and choked with fallen trees;<br> And he who went there, with but little ease<br> Must stumble by the stream's side, once made meet<br> For tender women's dainty wandering feet.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> The raven's croak, the low wind choked and drear,<br> The baffled stream, the grey wolf's doleful cry,<br> Were all the sounds that mariner could hear,<br> As through the wood he wandered painfully;<br> But as unto the house he drew anigh,<br> The pillars of a ruined shrine he saw,<br> The once fair temple of a fallen law.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> No image was there left behind to tell<br> Before whose face the knees of men had bowed;<br> An altar of black stone, of old wrought well,<br> Alone beneath a ruined roof now showed<br> The goal whereto the folk were wont to crowd,<br> Seeking for things forgotten long ago,<br> Praying for heads long ages laid a-low.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> Close to the temple was the castle-gate,<br> Doorless and crumbling; there our fellow turned,<br> Trembling indeed at what might chance to wait<br> The prey entrapped, yet with a heart that burned<br> To know the most of what might there be learned,<br> And hoping somewhat too, amid his fear,<br> To light on such things as all men hold dear.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> Noble the house was, nor seemed built for war,<br> But rather like the work of other days,<br> When men, in better peace than now they are,<br> Had leisure on the world around to gaze,<br> And noted well the past times' changing ways;<br> And fair with sculptured stories it was wrought,<br> By lapse of time unto dim ruin brought.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> Now as he looked about on all these things<br> And strove to read the mouldering histories,<br> Above the door an image with wide wings,<br> Whose unclad limbs a serpent seemed to seize,<br> He dimly saw, although the western breeze<br> And years of biting frost and washing rain<br> Had made the carver's lab our well-nigh vain.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> But this, though perished sore and worn away,<br> He noted well, because it seemed to be,<br> After the fashion of another day,<br> Some great man's badge of war or armoury;<br> And round it a carved wreath he seemed to see:<br> But taking note of these things, at the last<br> The mariner beneath the gateway passed. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> And there a lovely cloistered court he found,<br> A fountain in the mist o'erthrown and dry,<br> And in the cloister briers twining round<br> The slender shafts; the wondrous imagery<br> Outworn by more than many years gone by;<br> Because the country people, in their fear<br> Of wizardry, had wrought destruction here,</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> And piteously these fair things had been maimed;<br> There stood great Jove, lacking his head of might;<br> Here was the archer, swift Apollo, lamed;<br> The shapely limbs of Venus hid from sight<br> By weeds and shards; Diana's ankles light<br> Bound with the cable of some coasting ship;<br> And rusty nails through Helen's maddening lip.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> Therefrom unto the chambers did he pass,<br> And found them fair still, midst of their decay,<br> Though in them now no sign of man there was,<br> And everything but stone had passed away<br> That made them lovely in that vanished day;<br> Nay, the mere walls themselves would soon be gone<br> And nought be left but heaps of mouldering stone.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> But he, when all the place he had gone o'er,<br> And with much trouble clomb the broken stair,<br> And from the topmost turret seen the shore<br> And his good ship drawn up at anchor there,<br> Came down again, and found a crypt most fair<br> Built wonderfully beneath the greatest hall,<br> And there he saw a door within the wall,</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> Well-hinged, close shut; nor was there in that place<br> Another on its hinges, therefore he<br> Stood there and pondered for a little space<br> And thought: "Perchance some marvel I shall see,<br> For surely here some dweller there must be,<br> Because this door seems whole and new and sound,<br> While nought but ruin I can see around."</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> So with that word, moved by a strong desire,<br> He tried the hasp, that yielded to his hand,<br> And in a strange place, lit as by a fire<br> Unseen but near, he presently did stand;<br> And by an odorous breeze his face was fanned,<br> As though in some Arabian plain he stood,<br> Anigh the border of a spice-tree wood.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> He moved not for awhile, but looking round,<br> He wondered much to see the place so fair,<br> Because, unlike the castle above ground,<br> No pillager or wrecker had been there;<br> It seemed that time had passed on otherwhere,<br> Nor laid a finger on this hidden place<br> Rich with the wealth of some forgotten race.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> With hangings, fresh as when they left the loom,<br> The walls were hung a space above the head,<br> Slim ivory chairs were set about the room,<br> And in one corner was a dainty bed<br> That seemed for some fair queen apparellèd;<br> And marble was the worst stone on the floor,<br> That with rich Indian webs was covered o'er.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> The wanderer trembled when he saw all this,<br> Because he deemed by magic it was wrought;<br> Yet in his heart a longing for some bliss<br> Whereof the hard and changing world knows nought, <br> Arose and urged him on, and dimmed the thought<br> That there perchance some devil lurked to slay<br> The heedless wanderer from the light of day.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> Over against him was another door<br> Set in the wall, so casting fear aside,<br> With hurried steps he crossed the varied floor,<br> And there again the silver latch he tried<br> And with no pain the door he opened wide,<br> And entering the new chamber cautiously<br> The glory of great heaps of gold could see.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> Upon the floor uncounted medals lay<br> Like things of little value; here and there<br> Stood golden caldrons, that might well outweigh<br> The biggest midst an emperor's copper-ware,<br> And golden cups were set on tables fair,<br> Themselves of gold; and in all hollow things<br> Were stored great gems, worthy the crowns of kings.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> The walls and roof with gold were overlaid,<br> And precious raiment from the wall hung down;<br> The fall of kings that treasure might have stayed,<br> Or gained some longing conqueror great renown,<br> Or built again some God-destroyed old town;<br> What wonder if this plunderer of the sea<br> Stood gazing at it long and dizzily?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> But at the last his troubled eyes and dazed<br> He lifted from the glory of that gold,<br> And then the image, that well-nigh erased<br> Over the castle-gate he did behold,<br> Above a door well wrought in coloured gold<br> Again he saw; a naked girl with wings<br> Enfolded in a serpent's scaly rings.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> And even as his eyes were fixed on it<br> A woman's voice came from the other side,<br> And through his heart strange hopes began to flit<br> That in some wondrous land he might abide<br> Not dying, master of a deathless bride,<br> So o'er the gold which now he scarce could see<br> He went, and passed this last door eagerly.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> Then in a room he stood wherein there was<br> A marble bath, whose brimming water yet<br> Was scarcely still; a vessel of green glass<br> Half full of odorous ointment was there set<br> Upon the topmost step that still was wet,<br> And jewelled shoes and women's dainty gear,<br> Lay cast upon the varied pavement near.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> In one quick glance these things his eyes did see,<br> But speedily they turned round to behold<br> Another sight, for throned on ivory<br> There sat a woman, whose wet tresses rolled<br> On to the floor in waves of gleaming gold,<br> Cast back from such a form as, erewhile shown<br> To one poor shepherd, lighted up Troy town.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> Naked she was, the kisses of her feet<br> Upon the floor a dying path had made<br> From the full bath unto her ivory seat;<br> In her right hand, upon her bosom laid,<br> She held a golden comb, a mirror weighed<br> Her left hand down, aback her fair head lay<br> Dreaming awake of some long vanished day.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> Her eyes were shut but she seemed not to sleep,<br> Her lips were murmuring things unheard and low,<br> Or sometimes twitched as though she needs must weep,<br> Though from her eyes the tears refused to flow,<br> And oft with heavenly red her cheek did glow,<br> As if remembrance of some half-sweet shame<br> Across the web of many memories came.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> There stood the man, scarce daring to draw breath<br> For fear the lovely sight should fade away;<br> Forgetting heaven, forgetting life and death,<br> Trembling for fear lest something he should say<br> Unwitting, lest some sob should yet betray<br> His presence there, for to his eager eyes<br> Already did the tears begin to rise.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> But as he gazed she moved, and with a sigh<br> Bent forward, dropping down her golden head:<br> "Alas, alas! another day gone by,<br> Another day and no soul come," she said;<br> "Another year, and still I am not dead!"<br> And with that word once more her head she raised,<br> And on the trembling man with great eyes gazed.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> Then he imploring hands to her did reach,<br> And toward her very slowly 'gan to move<br> And with wet eyes her pity did beseech,<br> And seeing her about to speak he strove<br> From trembling lips to utter words of love;<br> But with a look she stayed his doubtful feet,<br> And made sweet music as their eyes did meet.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> For now she spoke in gentle voice and clear,<br> Using the Greek tongue that he knew full well:<br> "What man art thou that thus hast wandered here,<br> And found this lonely chamber where I dwell?<br> Beware, beware! for I have many a spell;<br> If greed of power and gold have led thee on,<br> Not lightly shall this untold wealth be won.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "But if thou com'st here knowing of my tale,<br> In hope to bear away my body fair,<br> Stout must thine heart be, nor shall that avail<br> If thou a wicked soul in thee dost bear;<br> So once again I bid thee to beware,<br> Because no base man things like this may see,<br> And live thereafter long and happily."</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "Lady," he said, "in Florence is my home,<br> And in my city noble is my name;<br> Neither on peddling voyage am I come,<br> But, like my fathers, bent to gather fame;<br> And though thy face has set my heart a-flame<br> Yet of thy story nothing do I know<br> But here have wandered heedlessly enow.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "But since the sight of thee mine eyes did bless,<br> What can I be but thine? what would'st thou have?<br> From those thy words, I deem from some distress<br> By deeds of mine thy dear life I might save;<br> O then, delay not! if one ever gave<br> His life to any, mine I give to thee;<br> Come, tell me what the price of love must be?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "Swift death, to be with thee a day and night<br> And with the earliest dawning to be slain?<br> Or better, a long year of great delight,<br> And many years of misery and pain?<br> Or worse, and this poor hour for all my gain?<br> A sorry merchant am I on this day,<br> E'en as thou willest so must I obey."</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> She said, "What brave words! nought divine am I,<br> But an unhappy and unheard-of maid<br> Compelled by evil fate and destiny<br> To live, who long ago should have been laid<br> Under the earth within the cypress shade.<br> Hearken awhile, and quickly shalt thou know<br> What deed I pray thee to accomplish now.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "God grant indeed thy words are not for nought!<br> Then shalt thou save me, since for many a day<br> To such a dreadful life I have been brought:<br> Nor will I spare with all my heart to pay<br> What man soever takes my grief away;<br> Ah! I will love thee, if thou lovest me<br> But well enough my saviour now to be.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "My father lived a many years agone<br> Lord of this land, master of all cunning,<br> Who ruddy gold could draw from out grey stone<br> And gather wealth from many an uncouth thing;<br> He made the wilderness rejoice and sing,<br> And such a leech he was that none could say<br> Without his word what soul should pass away.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "Unto Diana such a gift he gave,<br> Goddess above, below and on the earth,<br> That I should be her virgin and her slave<br> From the first hour of my most wretched birth;<br> Therefore my life had known but little mirth<br> When I had come unto my twentieth year<br> And the last time of hallowing drew anear.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "So in her temple had I lived and died<br> And all would long ago have passed away,<br> But ere that time came, did strange things betide,<br> Whereby I am alive unto this day;<br> Alas, the bitter words that I must say!<br> Ah! can I bring my wretched tongue to tell<br> How I was brought unto this fearful hell.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "A queen I was, what Gods I knew I loved,<br> And nothing evil was there in my thought,<br> And yet by love my wretched heart was moved<br> Until to utter ruin I was brought!<br> Alas! thou sayest our gods were vain and nought,<br> Wait, wait, till thou hast heard this tale of mine,<br> Then shalt thou think them devilish or divine.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "Hearken! in spite of father and of vow<br> I loved a man; but for that sin I think<br> Men had forgiven me--yea, yea, even thou;<br> But from the Gods the full cup must I drink<br> And into misery unheard-of sink,<br> Tormented when their own names are forgot,<br> And men must doubt e'er if they lived or not.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "Glorious my lover was unto my sight,<br> Most beautiful; of love we grew so fain<br> That we at last agreed, that on a night<br> We should be happy, but that he were slain<br> Or shut in hold; and neither joy nor pain<br> Should else forbid that hoped-for time to be;<br> So came the night that made a wretch of me.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "Ah! well do I remember all that night,<br> When through the window shone the orb of June,<br> And by the bed flickered the taper's light,<br> Whereby I trembled, gazing at the moon:<br> Ah me! the meeting that we had, when soon<br> Into his strong, well-trusted arms I fell<br> And many a sorrow we began to tell.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "Ah me! what parting on that night we had!<br> I think the story of my great despair<br> A little while might merry folk make sad;<br> For, as he swept away my yellow hair<br> To make my shoulder and my bosom bare,<br> I raised mine eyes, and shuddering could behold<br> A shadow cast upon the bed of gold:</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "Then suddenly was quenched my hot desire<br> And he untwined his arms; the moon so pale<br> A while ago, seemed changed to blood and fire,<br> And yet my limbs beneath me did not fail,<br> And neither had I strength to cry or wail,<br> But stood there helpless, bare and shivering,<br> With staring eyes still fixed upon the thing.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "Because the shade that on the bed of gold<br> The changed and dreadful moon was throwing down<br> Was of Diana, whom I did behold<br> With knotted hair and shining girt-up gown,<br> And on the high white brow a deadly frown<br> Bent upon us, who stood scarce drawing breath,<br> Striving to meet the horrible sure death.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "No word at all the dreadful Goddess said,<br> But soon across my feet my lover lay,<br> And well indeed I knew that he was dead;<br> And would that I had died on that same day!<br> For in a while the image turned away,<br> And without words my doom I understood,<br> And felt a horror change my human blood.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "And there I fell, and on the floor I lay<br> By the dead man, till daylight came on me,<br> And not a word thenceforward could I say<br> For three years; till of grief and misery,<br> The lingering pest, the cruel enemy,<br> My father and his folk were dead and gone,<br> And in this castle I was left alone:</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "And then the doom foreseen upon me fell,<br> For Queen Diana did my body change<br> Into a fork-tongued dragon flesh and fell,<br> And through the island nightly do I range,<br> Or in the green sea mate with monsters strange,<br> When in the middle of the moonlit night<br> The sleepy mariner I do affright.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "But all day long upon this gold I lie<br> Within this place, where never mason's hand<br> Smote trowel on the marble noisily;<br> Drowsy I lie, no folk at my command,<br> Who once was called the Lady of the Land;<br> Who might have bought a kingdom with a kiss,<br> Yea, half the world with such a sight as this."</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> And therewithal, with rosy fingers light,<br> Backward her heavy-hanging hair she threw,<br> To give her naked beauty more to sight;<br> But when, forgetting all the things he knew,<br> Maddened with love unto the prize he drew,<br> She cried: "Nay, wait! for wherefore wilt thou die,<br> Why should we not be happy, thou and I?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "Wilt thou not save me? once in every year<br> This rightful form of mine that thou dost see<br> By favour of the Goddess have I here<br> From sunrise unto sunset given me,<br> That some brave man may end my misery.<br> And thou--art thou not brave? can thy heart fail,<br> Whose eyes e'en now are weeping at my tale?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "Then listen! when this day is overpast,<br> A fearful monster shall I be again,<br> And thou mayst be my saviour at the last,<br> Unless, once more, thy words are nought and vain.<br> If thou of love and sovereignty art fain,<br> Come thou next morn, and when thou seest here<br> A hideous dragon, have thereof no fear,</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "But take the loathsome head up in thine hands<br> And kiss it, and be master presently<br> Of twice the wealth that is in all the lands<br> From Cathay to the head of Italy;<br> And master also, if it pleaseth thee,<br> Of all thou praisest as so fresh and bright,<br> Of what thou callest crown of all delight.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "Ah! with what joy then shall I see again<br> The sunlight on the green grass and the trees,<br> And hear the clatter of the summer rain,<br> And see the joyous folk beyond the seas.<br> Ah, me! to hold my child upon my knees<br> After the weeping of unkindly tears<br> And all the wrongs of these four hundred years.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> "Go now, go quick! leave this grey heap of stone; <br> And from thy glad heart think upon thy way,<br> How I shall love thee--yea, love thee alone,<br> That bringest me from dark death unto day;<br> For this shall be thy wages and thy pay;<br> Unheard-of wealth, unheard-of love is near,<br> If thou hast heart a little dread to bear."</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> Therewith she turned to go; but he cried out:<br> "Ah! wilt thou leave me then without one kiss,<br> To slay the very seeds of fear and doubt,<br> That glad to-morrow may bring certain bliss?<br> Hast thou forgotten how love lives by this,<br> The memory of some hopeful close embrace,<br> Low whispered words within some lonely place?"</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> But she, when his bright glittering eyes she saw<br> And burning cheeks, cried out: "Alas, alas!<br> Must I be quite undone, and wilt thou draw<br> A worse fate on me than the first one was?<br> O haste thee from this fatal place to pass!<br> Yet, ere thou goest, take this, lest thou shouldst deem<br> Thou hast been fooled by some strange midday dream."</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> So saying, blushing like a new-kissed maid,<br> From off her neck a little gem she drew,<br> That 'twixt those snowy rose-tinged hillocks laid,<br> The secrets of her glorious beauty knew;<br> And ere he well perceived what she would do,<br> She touched his hand, the gem within it lay,<br> And, turning, from his sight she fled away.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> Then at the doorway where her rosy heel<br> Had glanced and vanished, he awhile did stare,<br> And still upon his hand he seemed to feel<br> The varying kisses of her fingers fair;<br> Then turned he toward the dreary crypt and bare,<br> And dizzily throughout the castle passed<br> Till by the ruined fane he stood at last.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> Then weighing still the gem within his hand,<br> He stumbled backward through the cypress wood,<br> Thinking the while of some strange lovely land<br> Where all his life should be most fair and good;<br> Till on the valley's wall of hills he stood,<br> And slowly thence passed down unto the bay<br> Red with the death of that bewildering day.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> The next day came, and he, who all the night<br> Had ceaselessly been turning in his bed,<br> Arose and clad himself in armour bright,<br> And many a danger he rememberèd;<br> Storming of towns, lone sieges full of dread,<br> That with renown his heart had borne him through,<br> And this thing seemed a little thing to do.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> So on he went, and on the way he thought<br> Of all the glorious things of yesterday,<br> Nought of the price whereat they must be bought,<br> But ever to himself did softly say<br> "No roaming now, my wars are passed away,<br> No long dull days devoid of happiness,<br> When such a love my yearning heart shall bless."</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> Thus to the castle did he come at last,<br> But when unto the gateway he drew near,<br> And underneath its ruined archway passed<br> Into the court, a strange noise did he hear,<br> And through his heart there shot a pang of fear;<br> Trembling, he gat his sword into his hand,<br> And midmost of the cloisters took his stand.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> But for a while that unknown noise increased,<br> A rattling, that with strident roars did blend<br> And whining moans; but suddenly it ceased,<br> A fearful thing stood at the cloister's end<br> And eyed him for a while, then 'gan to wend<br> Adown the cloisters, and began again<br> That rattling, and the moan like fiends in pain.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> And as it came on towards him, with its teeth<br> The body of a slain goat did it tear,<br> The blood whereof in its hot jaws did seethe,<br> And on its tongue he saw the smoking hair;<br> Then his heart sank, and standing trembling there,<br> Throughout his mind wild thoughts and fearful ran:<br> "Some fiend she was," he said, "the bane of man."</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> Yet he abode her still, although his blood<br> Curdled within him: the thing dropped the goat,<br> And creeping on, came close to where he stood,<br> And raised its head to him and wrinkled throat.<br> Then he cried out and wildly at her smote,<br> Shutting his eyes, and turned and from the place<br> Ran swiftly, with a white and ghastly face.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> But little things rough stones and tree-trunks seemed,<br> And if he fell, he rose and ran on still;<br> No more he felt his hurts than if he dreamed,<br> He made no stay for valley or steep hill,<br> Heedless he dashed through many a foaming rill,<br> Until he came unto the ship at last<br> And with no word into the deep hold passed. </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> Meanwhile the dragon, seeing him clean gone,<br> Followed him not, but crying horribly,<br> Caught up within her jaws a block of stone<br> And ground it into powder, then turned she,<br> With cries that folk could hear far out at sea,<br> And reached the treasure set apart of old,<br> To brood above the hidden heaps of gold.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> Yet was she seen again on many a day<br> By some half-waking mariner or herd,<br> Playing amid the ripples of the bay,<br> Or on the hills making all things afeard,<br> Or in the wood that did that castle gird,<br> But never any man again durst go<br> To seek her woman 's form, and end her woe.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> As for the man, who knows what things he bore?<br> What mournful faces peopled the sad night,<br> What wailings vexed him with reproaches sore,<br> What images of that nigh-gained delight!<br> What dreamed caresses from soft hands and white,<br> Turning to horrors ere they reached the best;<br> What struggles vain, what shame, what huge unrest?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=538870" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><br> No man he knew, three days he lay and raved<br> And cried for death, until a lethargy<br> Fell on him, and his fellows thought him saved;<br> But on the third night he awoke to die;<br> And at Byzantium doth his body lie<br> Between two blossoming pomegranate trees,<br> Within the churchyard of the Genoese.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><a href="http://poems.citatepedia.com/">poem</a> by <strong><a rel="author" href="http://authors.citatepedia.com/by.php?a=William+Morris">William Morris</a></strong></div>

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