O skilful Death and full of bitterness, Well mayst thou boast that thou the best chevalier That any folk e'er had, hast from us taken; Sith nothing is that unto worth pertaineth But had its life in the young English King, And better were it, should God grant his pleasure That he should live than many a Irving dastard That doth but wound the good with ire and sadness. From this faint world, how full of bitterness Love takes his way and holds his joy deceitful, Sith no thing is but turneth unto anguish And each to-day 'vails less than yestere'en, Let each man visage this young English King That was most valiant mid all worthiest men! Gone is his body fine and amorous, Whence have we grief, discord and deepest sadness. Him, whom it pleased for our great bitterness To come to earth to draw us from misventure, Who drank of death for our salvacioun, Him do we pray as to a Lord most righteous And humble eke, that the young English King He please to pardon, as true pardon is, And bid go in with honoured companions There where there is no grief, nor shall be sadness. Alba Innominata From the Provençal. In a garden where the whitethorn spreads her leaves My lady hath her love lain close beside her, Till the warder cries the dawn--Ah dawn that grieves! Ah God! Ah God! That dawn should come so soon! "Please God that night, dear night should never cease, Nor that my love should parted be from me, Nor watch cry 'Dawn'--Ah dawn that slayeth peace! Ah God! Ah God! That dawn should come so soon! "Fair friend and sweet, thy lips! Our lips again! Lo, in the meadow there the birds give song! Ours be the love and Jealousy's the pain! Ah God! Ah God! That dawn should come so soon! "Sweet friend and fair take we our joy again Down in the garden, where the birds are loud, Till the warder's reed astrain Cry God! Ah God! That dawn should come so soon! "Of that sweet wind that comes from Far-Away Have I drunk deep of my Beloved's breath, Yea! of my Love's that is so dear and gay. Ah God! Ah God! That dawn should come so soon!" _Envoi_. Fair is this damsel and right courteous, And many watch her beauty's gracious way. Her heart toward love is no wise traitorous. Ah God! Ah God! That dawns should come so soon! Planh _It is of the white thoughts that he saw in the Forest_. White Poppy, heavy with dreams, O White Poppy, who art wiser than love, Though I am hungry for their lips When I see them a-hiding And a-passing out and in through the shadows --There in the pine wood it is, And they are white, White Poppy, They are white like the clouds in the forest of the sky Ere the stars arise to their hunting.