Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Switzerland and Austria: Vol. XVI. 1876–79.
Queen Bertha’s Alms
By Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814–1902)G
With hushed yet rapturous omen gracing,
The stir, as from her palace forth
The young fair queen came pacing.
But here no pompous guard was set,
No flattering concourse gathered round;
The poor about her gate were met;
The readiest place the poorest found.
The queen dispensed her bounteous load;
On those whom keenest fates had hurt,
Her earlier gifts bestowed.
Her face the maniac’s rage beguiled;
She turned her now among the ring,
And paused above a poor blind child
The sweetest of her songs to sing.
Kind looks to each and all she gave,
Which on with them through life they bore,
And down into their grave.
Around her feet the children crept,
And kissed the grass those feet had trod,
Whilst eyes that many a year had wept,
With tears of gladness gemmed the sod.
Called her at last away to prayer:
Farewell she smiled on their farewells—
And turned; when, unaware,
An old gray man with hands outspread
She marked low bent on quivering knee;
Over his brow she stooped and said,
“A kiss is all I have for thee.”