Whatever a man of the sons of men | |
Shall say to his heart of the lords above, | |
They have shown man verily, once and again, | |
Marvellous mercies and infinite love. | |
In the wild fifth year of the change of things, | |
When France was glorious and blood-red, fair | |
With dust of battle and deaths of kings, | |
A queen of men, with helmeted hair, | |
Carrier came down to the Loire and slew, | |
10 | Till all the ways and the waves waxed red: |
Bound and drowned, slaying two by two, | |
Maidens and young men, naked and wed. | |
They brought on a day to his judgment-place | |
One rough with labour and red with fight, | |
And a lady noble by name and face, | |
Faultless, a maiden, wonderful, white. | |
She knew not, being for shame’s sake blind, | |
If his eyes were hot on her face hard by. | |
And the judge bade strip and ship them, and bind | |
20 | Bosom to bosom, to drown and die. |
The white girl winced and whitened; but he | |
Caught fire, waxed bright as a great bright flame | |
Seen with thunder far out on the sea, | |
Laughed hard as the glad blood went and came. | |
Twice his lips quailed with delight, then said, | |
‘I have but a word to you all, one word; | |
Bear with me; surely I am but dead;’ | |
And all they laughed and mocked him and heard. | |
‘Judge, when they open the judgment-roll, | |
30 | I will stand upright before God and pray: |
“Lord God, have mercy on one man’s soul, | |
For his mercy was great upon earth, I say. | |
‘ “Lord, if I loved thee – Lord, if I served – | |
If these who darkened thy fair Son’s face | |
I fought with, sparing not one, nor swerved | |
A hand’s-breadth, Lord, in the perilous place – | |
‘ “I pray thee say to this man, O Lord, | |
Sit thou for him at my feet on a throne. | |
I will face thy wrath, though it bite as a sword, | |
40 | And my soul shall burn for his soul, and atone. |
‘ “For, Lord, thou knowest, O God most wise, | |
How gracious on earth were his deeds towards me. | |
Shall this be a small thing in thine eyes, | |
That is greater in mine than the whole great sea?” | |
‘I have loved this woman my whole life long, | |
And even for love’s sake when have I said | |
“I love you”? when have I done you wrong, | |
Living? but now I shall have you dead. | |
‘Yea, now, do I bid you love me, love? | |
50 | Love me or loathe, we are one not twain. |
But God be praised in his heaven above | |
For this my pleasure and that my pain! | |
‘For never a man, being mean like me, | |
Shall die like me till the whole world dies. | |
I shall drown with her, laughing for love; and she | |
Mix with me, touching me, lips and eyes. | |
‘Shall she not know me and see me all through, | |
Me, on whose heart as a worm she trod? | |
You have given me, God requite it you, | |
60 | What man yet never was given of God.’ |
O sweet one love, O my life’s delight, | |
Dear, though the days have divided us, | |
Lost beyond hope, taken far out of sight, | |
Not twice in the world shall the gods do thus. | |
Had it been so hard for my love? but I, | |
Though the gods gave all that a god can give, | |
I had chosen rather the gift to die, | |
Cease, and be glad above all that live. | |
For the Loire would have driven us down to the sea, | |
70 | And the sea would have pitched us from shoal to shoal; |
And I should have held you, and you held me, | |
As flesh holds flesh, and the soul the soul. | |
Could I change you, help you to love me, sweet, | |
Could I give you the love that would sweeten death, | |
We should yield, go down, locked hands and feet, | |
Die, drown together, and breath catch breath; | |
But you would have felt my soul in a kiss, | |
And known that once if I loved you well; | |
And I would have given my soul for this | |
80 | To burn for ever in burning hell. |