From “The Earthly Paradise”
ATALANTA VICTORIOUS
AND there two runners did the sign abide
Foot set to foot,—a young man slim and fair,
Crisp-haired, well knit, with firm limbs often tried
In places where no man his strength may spare;
Dainty his thin coat was, and on his hair
A golden circlet of renown he wore,
And in his hand an...
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A Golden gillyflower to-day
I wore upon my helm alway,
And won the prize of this tourney.
Hah! hah! la belle jaune giroflée.However well Sir Giles might sit,
His sun was weak to wither it,
Lord Miles’s blood was dew on it:
Hah! hah! la belle jaune giroflée.Although my spear in splinters flew
From John’s steel-... -
Slayer of winter, art thou here again?
O welcome, thou that bring’st the summer nigh!
The bitter wind makes not thy victory vain,
Nor will we mock thee for thy faint blue sky.
Welcome, O March! whose kindly days and dry
Make April ready for the throstle’s song,
Thou first redresser of the winter’s wrong!Yea, welcome March! and though I...
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Come hither lads and hearken,
for a tale there is to tell,
Of the wonderful days a-coming,
when all shall be better than well.And the tale shall be told of a country,
a land in the midst of the sea,
And folk shall call it England
in the days that are going to be.There more than one in a thousand,
in the...