The Romaunt Of Margret (Excerpts)

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

IX

    “My lips do need thy breath,
    My lips do need thy smile,
    And my pallid eyne, that light in thine
    Which met the stars erewhile:
    Yet go with light and life
    If that thou lovest one
    In all the earth who loveth thee
    As truly as the sun.
    Margret, Margret.”


XIV

    “But better loveth he
    Thy chaliced wine than thy chanted song,
    And better both than thee,
    Margret, Margret.”



XVII

    “But better loveth she
    Thy golden comb than thy gathered flowers,
    And better both than thee,
    Margret, Margret.”


XXII

    “We brake no gold, a sign
    Of stronger faith to be,
    But I wear his last look in my soul,
    Which said, I love but thee!”
    Margret, Margret.


XXVI

    A knight’s bloodhound and he
    The funeral watch did keep;
    With a thought o’ the chase he stroked its face
    As it howled to see him weep.
    A fair child kissed the dead,
    But shrank before its cold.
    And alone yet proudly in his hall
    Did stand a baron of old.
    Margret, Margret.