| |
| I LOVE my Lady; she is very fair; | |
| Her brow is wan and bound by simple hair; | |
| Her spirit sits aloft and high, | |
| But glances from her tender eye | |
| In sweetness droopingly. | 5 |
| |
| As a young forest while the wind drives thro’, | |
| My life is stirr’d when she breaks on my view; | |
| Her beauty grants my will no choice | |
| But silent awe, till she rejoice | |
| My longing with her voice. | 10 |
| |
| Her warbling voice, tho’ ever low and mild, | |
| Oft makes me feel as strong wine would a child; | |
| And tho’ her hand be airy light | |
| Of touch, it moves me with its might | |
| As would a sudden fright. | 15 |
| |
| A hawk high poised in air, whose nerved wing-tips | |
| Tremble with might suppress’d before he dips, | |
| In vigilance, scarce more intense | |
| Than I, when her voice holds my sense | |
| Contented in suspense. | 20 |
| |
| Her mention of a thing, august or poor, | |
| Makes it far nobler than it was before: | |
| As, where the sun strikes, life will gush | |
| And what is pale receive a flush, | |
| Rich hues, a richer blush. | 25 |
| |
| My Lady’s name when I hear strangers use, | |
| Not meaning her, to me seems lax misuse; | |
| I love none but my Lady’s name; | |
| Maud, Grace, Rose, Marian, all the same | |
| Are harsh, or blank and tame. | 30 |
| |
| My lady walks as I have watch’d a swan | |
| Swim where a glory on the water shone: | |
| There ends of willow-branches ride | |
| Quivering in the flowing tide, | |
| By the deep river’s side. | 35 |
| |
| Fresh beauties, howsoe’er she moves, are stirr’d; | |
| As the sunn’d bosom of a humming-bird | |
| At each pant lifts some fiery hue, | |
| Fierce gold, bewildering green or blue— | |
| The same, yet ever new. | 40 |
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