The ballad of the dark ladie

• Beneath yon birch with silver bark,
• And boughs so pendulous and fair,
• The brook falls scatter'd down the rock:
• And all is mossy there!
•  
• And there upon the moss she sits,
• The Dark Ladie in silent pain;
• The heavy tear is in her eye,
• And drops and swells again.
•  
• Three times she sends her little page
• Up the castled mountain's breast,
• If he might find the Knight that wears
• The Griffin for his crest.
•  
• The sun was sloping down the sky,
• And she had linger'd there all day,
• Counting moments, dreaming fears--
• Oh wherefore can he stay?
•  
• She hears a rustling o'er the brook,
• She sees far off a swinging bough!
• “'Tis He! 'Tis my betrothed Knight!
• Lord Falkland, it is Thou!”
•  
• She springs, she clasps him round the neck,
• She sobs a thousand hopes and fears,
• Her kisses glowing on his cheeks
• She quenches with her tears.
•  
• * * * * *
•  
• “My friends with rude ungentle words
• They scoff and bid me fly to thee!
• O give me shelter in thy breast!
• O shield and shelter me!
•  
• “My Henry, I have given thee much,
• I gave what I can ne'er recall,
• I gave my heart, I gave my peace,
• O Heaven! I gave thee all.”
•  
• The Knight made answer to the Maid,
• While to his heart he held her hand,
• “Nine castles hath my noble sire,
• None statelier in the land.
•  
• “The fairest one shall be my love's,
• The fairest castle of the nine!
• Wait only till the stars peep out,
• The fairest shall be thine:
•  
• “Wait only till the hand of eve
• Hath wholly closed yon western bars,
• And through the dark we two will steal
• Beneath the twinkling stars!”—
•  
• “The dark? the dark? No! not the dark?
• The twinkling stars? How, Henry? How?
• O God! 'twas in the eye of noon
• He pledged his sacred vow!
•  
• “And in the eye of noon my love
• Shall lead me from my mother's door,
• Sweet boys and girls all clothed in white
• Strewing flowers before:
•  
• “But first the nodding minstrels go
• With music meet for lordly bowers,
• The children next in snow-white vests,
• Strewing buds and flowers!
•  
• “And then my love and I shall pace,
• My jet black hair in pearly braids,
• Between our comely bachelors
• And blushing bridal maids.”