Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/453

"Advance my standards to that war,
"And bid my good knights prick and ride;
"The gled shall watch as fierce a fight
"As e'er was fought on the Border side!"

'Twas bent beneath and blue above,
'Twas nodding grass and naked sky,
Where, ringing up the wastrel mind,
The eyass stooped upon the pye.

True Thomas sighed above his harp,
And turned the song on the midmost string;
And the last least word True Thomas made,
He harpit his dead youth back to the King.

"Now I am prince, and I do well
"To love my love withouten fear;
"To walk with man in fellowship,
"And breathe my horse behind the deer.

"My hounds they bay unto the death,
"The buck has couched beyond the burn,
"My love she waits at her window
"To wash my hands when I return.

"For that I live am I content
"(Oh! I have seen my true love's eyes)
"To stand wi' Adam in Eden-glade,
"And run in the woods o' Paradise!"

'Twas naked sky and nodding grass,
'Twas running flood and wastrel wind,
Where, checked against the open pass,
The red deer turned to wait the hind.