Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
France: Vols. IX–X. 1876–79.

Domrémy

Joan of Arc

By William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

(From King Henry the Sixth, Part I)

DAUPHIN, I am by birth a shepherd’s daughter,

My wit untrain’d in any kind of art.

Heaven and our Lady gracious hath it pleas’d

To shine on my contemptible estate:

Lo! whilst I waited on my tender lambs,

And to sun’s parching heat display’d my cheeks,

God’s mother deigned to appear to me;

And, in a vision full of majesty,

Will’d me to leave my base vocation,

And free my country from calamity.

Her aid she promis’d, and assur’d success:

In complete glory she reveal’d herself;

And, whereas I was black and swart before,

With those clear rays which she infus’d on me,

That beauty am I bless’d with, which you see.