THE JESTER walked in the garden: | |
The garden had fallen still; | |
He bade his soul rise upward | |
And stand on her window-sill. | |
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It rose in a straight blue garment, | 5 |
When owls began to call: | |
It had grown wise-tongued by thinking | |
Of a quiet and light footfall; | |
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But the young queen would not listen; | |
She rose in her pale night gown; | 10 |
She drew in the heavy casement | |
And pushed the latches down. | |
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He bade his heart go to her, | |
When the owls called out no more; | |
In a red and quivering garment | 15 |
It sang to her through the door. | |
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It had grown sweet-tongued by dreaming, | |
Of a flutter of flower-like hair; | |
But she took up her fan from the table | |
And waved it off on the air. | 20 |
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I have cap and bells he pondered, | |
I will send them to her and die; | |
And when the morning whitened | |
He left them where she went by. | |
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She laid them upon her bosom, | 25 |
Under a cloud of her hair, | |
And her red lips sang them a love song: | |
Till stars grew out of the air. | |
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She opened her door and her window, | |
And the heart and the soul came through, | 30 |
To her right hand came the red one, | |
To her left hand came the blue. | |
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They set up a noise like crickets, | |
A chattering wise and sweet, | |
And her hair was a folded flower | 35 |
And the quiet of love in her feet. | |