John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)

MY lady walks her morning round,

My lady’s page her fleet greyhound,

My lady’s hair the fond winds stir,

And all the birds make songs for her.

Her thrushes sing in Rathburn bowers,

And Rathburn side is gay with flowers;

But ne’er like hers, in flower or bird,

Was beauty seen or music heard.

The distance of the stars is hers;

The least of all her worshippers,

The dust beneath her dainty heel,

She knows not that I see or feel.

Oh, proud and calm!—she cannot know

Where’er she goes with her I go;

Oh, cold and fair!—she cannot guess

I kneel to share her hound’s caress!

Gay knights beside her hunt and hawk,

I rob their ears of her sweet talk;

Her suitors come from east and west,

I steal her smiles from every guest.

Unheard of her, in loving words,

I greet her with the song of birds;

I reach her with her green-arm’d bowers,

I kiss her with the lips of flowers.

The hound and I are on her trail,

The wind and I uplift her veil;

As if the calm, cold moon she were,

And I the tide, I follow her.

As unrebuked as they, I share

The licence of the sun and air,

And in a common homage hide

My worship from her scorn and pride.

World-wide apart, and yet so near,

I breathe her charmèd atmosphere,

Wherein to her my service brings

The reverence due to holy things.

Her maiden pride, her haughty name,

My dumb devotion shall not shame;

The love that no return doth crave

To knightly levels lifts the slave.

No lance have I, in joust or fight,

To splinter in my lady’s sight;

But, at her feet, how blest were I

For any need of hers to die!