| |
| WE were playing on the green together, | |
| My sweetheart and I— | |
| O! so heedless in the gay June weather | |
| When the word went forth that we must die. | |
| O! so merrily the balls of amber | 5 |
| And of ivory toss’d we to the sky, | |
| While the word went forth in the King’s chamber | |
| That we both must die. | |
| |
| O! so idly straying thro’ the pleasaunce | |
| Pluck’d we here and there | 10 |
| Fruit and bud, while in the royal presence | |
| The King’s son was casting from his hair | |
| Glory of the wreathen gold that crown’d it, | |
| And, ungirdling all his garments fair, | |
| Flinging by the jewell’d clasp that bound it, | 15 |
| With his feet made bare. | |
| |
| Down the myrtled stairway of the palace, | |
| Ashes on his head, | |
| Came he, thro’ the rose and citron alleys, | |
| In rough sark of sackcloth habited, | 20 |
| And in the hempen halter—O! we jested | |
| Lightly, and we laugh’d as he was led | |
| To the torture, while the bloom we breasted | |
| Where the grapes grew red. | |
| |
| O! so sweet the birds, when he was dying, | 25 |
| Piped to her and me— | |
| Is no room this glad June day for sighing— | |
| He is dead, and she and I go free! | |
| When the sun shall set on all our pleasure | |
| We will mourn him—What, so you decree | 30 |
| We are heartless? Nay, but in what measure | |
| Do you more than we? | |
| |
