Page:An English Garner Ingatherings from Our History and Literature (Volume 1 1877).pdf/277

Her hair hung loose neglect about her shoulders twain:
And from those two bright stars to him sometime so dear,
Her heart sent drops of pearl; which fell in foison down
'Twixt lily and the rose. She wrung her hands with pain
And piteously 'gan say, "My true and faithful pheer!
Alas, and woe is me! why should my fortune frown
On me thus frowardly to rob me of my joy?
What cruel envious hand hath taken thee away;
And with thee, my content, my comfort and my stay?
Thou only wast the ease of trouble and annoy:
When they did me assail, in thee my hopes did rest.
Alas, what now is left but grief that night and day
Afflicts this woeful life, and with continual rage
Torments ten thousand ways my miserable breast?
0 greedy envious heaven! what needed thee to have
Enriched with such a jewel this unhappy age;
To take it back again so soon? Alas, when shall
Mine eyes see ought that may content them, since thy grave
My only treasure hides, the joy of my poor heart?
As here with thee on earth I lived, even so equal
Methinks it were, with thee in heaven I did abide:
And as our troubles all, we here on earth did part;
So reason would that there, of thy most happy state
I had my share. Alas, if thou my trusty guide
Were wont to be: how canst thou leave me thus alone
In darkness and astray; weak, weary, desolate,
Plunged in a world of woe—refusing for to take