Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Robert Stephen Hawker. 18041875674. King Arthur’s Waes-hael
WAES-HAEL for knight and dame! | |
O merry be their dole! | |
Drink-hael! in Jesu’s name | |
We fill the tawny bowl; | |
But cover down the curving crest, | 5 |
Mould of the Orient Lady’s breast. | |
Waes-hael! yet lift no lid: | |
Drain ye the reeds for wine. | |
Drink-hael! the milk was hid | |
That soothed that Babe divine; | 10 |
Hush’d, as this hollow channel flows, | |
He drew the balsam from the rose. | |
Waes-hael! thus glow’d the breast | |
Where a God yearn’d to cling; | |
Drink-hael! so Jesu press’d | 15 |
Life from its mystic spring; | |
Then hush and bend in reverent sign | |
And breathe the thrilling reeds for wine. | |
Waes-hael! in shadowy scene | |
Lo! Christmas children we: | 20 |
Drink-hael! behold we lean | |
At a far Mother’s knee; | |
To dream that thus her bosom smiled, | |
And learn the lip of Bethlehem’s Child. |