Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/70

With the sweet latin of their lay
That welcome cried to dawning day.
Soft Zephirus, and eke his wife,
Dame Flora, queen of flowers, new life
Gave to the meads where’er they went,
And every verdant laund besprent
With opening buds, which gladly her
Worshipped as dame and verderer.8830
For these, to speed young lovers, go
Across the teeming earth and sow
Sweet flowers a-tint with varied hues,
Which amorous swains and maidens use
To twine amid their flowing hair
In chaplets fragrant, fresh and fair,
And ’tis for such they love to spread
Gay counterpanes right well bestead
With countless flowrets in such wise
As seems, forsooth, to mock the skies,8840
With stars all gloriously beseen.

Old-time freedom On couches thus bedecked I ween,
From jealousy and envy free
They mingled in felicity
Secure, with soft embrace and kiss,
’Neath sheltering boughs in heaven-like bliss.
The branches joined above them made
A fretted roof of cooling shade.
And there right joyously they spent
The jolly time in merriment8850
And carolling and amorous play,
As simple men for whom the day
Was ne’er too long, nor sad nor dull,
For all the world was beautiful.