GODIVA I waited for the train at Coventry ; Not only we, the latest seed of Time, New men, that in the flying of a wheel Cry down the past, not only we, that prate Of rights and wrongs, have loved the people well, And loathed to see them overtax'd; but she Did more, and underwent, and overcame, The woman of a thousand summers back, Godiva, wife to that grim Earl, who ruled In Coventry: for when he laid a tax Upon his town, and all the mothers brought Their children, clamouring, 'If we pay, we starve !' She sought her lord, and found him, where he strode About the hall, among his dogs, alone, His beard a foot before him, and his hair A yard behind. She told him of their tears, And pray'd him, 'If they pay this tax, they starve.' Whereat he stared, replying, half-amazed, 'You would not let your little finger ache For such as these?'-But I would die,' said she. He laugh'd, and swore by Peter and by Paul: Then fillip'd at the diamond in her ear; 'Oh ay, ay, ay, you talk !'-' Alas!' she said, 'But prove me what it is I would not do.' And from a heart as rough as Esau's hand, He answer'd, 'Ride you naked thro' the town, And I repeal it'; and nodding, as in scorn, He parted, with great strides among his dogs. So left alone, the passions of her mind, As winds from all the compass shift and blow, Made war upon each other for an hour, Till pity won. She sent a herald forth, And bade him cry, with sound of trumpet, all The hard condition; but that she would loose The people therefore, as they loved her well, From then till noon no foot should pace the street, No eye look down, she passing; but that all Should keep within, door shut, and window barr'd. Then fled she to her inmost bower, and there Unclasp'd the wedded eagles of her belt, The grim Earl's gift; but ever at a breath She linger'd, looking like a summer moon Half-dipt in cloud : anon she shook her head, And shower'd the rippled ringlets to her knee; Unclad herself in haste; adown the stair Then she rode forth, clothed on with chastity : Made her cheek flame: her palfrey's footfall shot Then she rode back, clothed on with chastity: And one low churl, compact of thankless earth, The fatal byword of all years to come, Boring a little auger-hole in fear, Peep'd-but his eyes, before they had their will, And dropt before him. So the Powers, who wait Was clash'd and hammer'd from a hundred towers, One after one but even then she gain'd Her bower; crown'd, whence reissuing, robed and To meet her lord, she took the tax away THE DAY-DREAM PROLOGUE O LADY FLORA, let me speak: As by the lattice you reclined, I went thro' many wayward moods Across my fancy, brooding warm, And loosely settled into form. Then take the broidery-frame, and add And I will tell it. Turn your face, Nor look with that too-earnest eye— The rhymes are dazzled from their place, And order'd words asunder fly. THE SLEEPING PALACE I THE varying year with blade and sheaf Clothes and reclothes the happy plains, Here rests the sap within the leaf, Here stays the blood along the veins. Like hints and echoes of the world II Soft lustre bathes the range of urns The peacock in his laurel bower, |